Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc ends a 2-year victory drought by safely winning a home Monaco GP ahead of McLaren’s Oscar Piastri and teammate Carlos Sainz.
This result means that Leclerc finally achieved a podium and a victory at home race and Piastri obtains his 3rd overall podium and first this year.
The race was marked by a scary crash in which both Haas drivers and Red Bull’s Sergio Perez crashed before reaching a Massenet corner in the first lap of the race.
The session had been red-flagged for a good 40 minutes before it turned into a sterile action-free race due to a ‘free stop’ strategy following a red flag.
Chaotic Monaco GP start
Charles Leclerc starts from pole position for the 3rd time in his home Grand Prix after DNS-ing in 2021 and finishing 4th the year after.
Mercedes drivers and Max Verstappen are the only drivers who hope to do one pit stop as they start on hard tires.
SESSION HAS BEEN RED-FLAGGED
Charles Leclerc gets a clear start from first and Piastri fends off Sainz in third following Sainte-Devote but the Spaniard’s front left puncture ‘gives up’ and locks into Casino.
The damage is suspected to have occurred after a minor tap between Piastri’s and Sainz’s tires into Saint-Devote
What should have been a standard Safety Car at least turned surprisingly into a Red Flag.
Cameras have rapidly shifted to Beau Rivage corner where Haas drivers and Sergio Perez are out of the race.
The lack of space heading toward a blind left-hander Massenet saw Magnussen and Perez running out of space and crashing high-speed. The Mexican spun at Monte Carlo’s highest point and had visible damage both at the front and with a missing rear part of the car.
Slow motion replay of a turn 2 crash presented a tire-to-tire contact between Dane and Mexican. Magnussen optimistically went for an insufficient gap and following a contact ‘T-boned’ Perez into the outside barrier.
It is yet to be understood what the stewards will decide regarding this hectic accident and whether this incident enforced a race ban on Haas’ Kevin Magnussen (currently standing on 10 penalty points).
Moreover, Alpines had a tangle at the exit of Portier which almost flipped Ocon at the entry to the Tunnel corner.
Carlos Sainz miraculously recovered and was given a ‘green light’ to restart. More so stewards stated that Spaniard would start from 3rd since Red Flag came into force before the first sector could have been completed.
“I had a good part of my front on Perez’s rear, and when he went to the wall I just got pushed into the wall. I trusted he was going to make a space.
You have to have a car width otherwise you leave the guy no option. It’s unfortunate, a lot of cost for the team and a lot of work for the guys. From my point of view I was there, and I got squeezed into the wall.”
Haas’ Kevin Magnussen reflects on the turn 2 crash at the 2024 Monaco GP.
At 15:32 local time, it was announced that the race would restart at 15:44.
No further investigation will be conducted into the incident between Magnussen and Perez, as the stewards deemed the crash a racing incident. They determined that both drivers lacked the space needed to drive side-by-side.
Esteban Ocon is another victim of this year’s Monaco GP and Frenchman becomes 4th driver to retire due to terminal damage to his Alpine car.
Race restart and early stage of the race
Drivers decided to switch to hard tires before a standing start procedure.
This time both Mercedes’ and Verstappen decided to do the opposite strategy others once again.
Conservative approach to a race restart saw no changes to any positions.
Lap 6 and top 3 broke away from Norris and are within each other’s DRS range.
Piastri has been informed by his racing engineer that a very minor amount of aero balance has been lost and that there are slight damages present.
Max Verstappen is informed that George Russell is going slowly with the Austrian outfit suspecting that Briton is ‘giving away’ a free pitstop to Mclaren and Ferrari drivers.
A quarter into the Monaco GP, Piastri is 3 tenths behind race leader Leclerc, while another McLaren driver Lando Norris is almost within a second of third-place setter, Carlos Sainz.
The gap goes over 1 second as the second half of the race commences
Charles Leclerc’s tire management seems to be a part of the history with Monegasque opening a gap of 1.5 seconds to Oscar Piastri as lap 26 draws to close.
The battle for eight intensifies. Willliams’ Alex Albon is hunting down RB’s Yuki Tsunoda with the gap shortening down to 1.3 seconds.
Official graphics show that McLaren’s Lando Norris was ‘1 centimeter away’ from clipping a barrier at the exit of turn 1.
“If you can slow down a little bit.” Ferrari’s pit wall has urged Charles Leclerc to decrease a sufficient gap to Russell to prevent McLaren from attempting a soft tire stint.
The gap to Russell needs to be 19 seconds approximately.
Race leaders have finally caught up to backmarkers with drivers up to 11th (Stroll) being passed for a full lap.
Meanwhile, Leclerc extended ‘legs’ and increased a lead up to 3 seconds to Mclaren’s chaser this Sunday.
Stroll reports a slow rear right puncture and limps back into the pits in lap 50 for a new set of supersoft tires.
Race replay shows a contact with the inside barrier at the exit of Chicane which caused a slow puncture.
A little bit up the field, Hamilton dives into the pitlane for a set of hard tires.
Max is another driver on the opposite strategy to come for a set of hard tires. Russell is the last one to do so inside of the top 10.
Down the field, Bottas bravely passes Williams’ Logan Sargeant for 13th on the inside of Mirabeau.
Fast laps from Verstappen and Hamilton mean Russell can’t pit now, as he would fall behind both. Therefore, he’s conserving his tires to defend his position, which has created an opportunity for Norris to pit if he chooses to.
Norris ups the pace and is literally on the tail of Sainz at the Pool section as the Monaco GP slowly unfolds.
Final laps of Monaco GP
Beautiful double overtake for Lance Stroll who first passes Zhou in the Tunnel and then Sargeant with a textbook switchback pass in Sainte-Devote.
As of lap 60, the gap between Leclerc and Piastri stands at 1.2 seconds and between Sainz and Piastri at 6 tenths,
Max Verstappen catches George Russell and is in his quest to minimize the damage from a relatively troublesome Monaco GP.
While Dutchman tries to overtake Russell it is worth noting that no positions have been traded between drivers since the race restarted.
Switching to hard tires neutralized the race as all drivers were trying to conserve what was left of grip.
6 laps to go and it seems like Piastri has completely accepted a second place this afternoon. The gap to Leclerc stands at 8.5 seconds. On the other side…
…Norris is again close to Sainz it seems now that McLaren’s focus is pushed on backing Sainz into Norris for McLaren’s 2-3 finish.
In the end, Mclaren’s strategy is unsuccessful and positions stay intact, Leclerc comes home first to obtain his 6th career victory and first in Monte Carlo.