Hailing from Monaco, Charles Leclerc secured his inaugural victory at his local competition, the Monaco Grand Prix. Being a Ferrari racer, this marks his premier triumph on home turf, and he also carves his name as the maiden Monégasque to clinch the title from the time the Formula One championship was initiated in 1950.
Leclerc outpaced Oscar Piastri from McLaren who finished second and his own squad member from Ferrari, Carlos Sainz, who placed third. This race will be remembered for Red Bull’s Sergio Pérez’s dreadful crash right at the first lap’s outset.
McLaren’s Lando Norris scored a fourth position, with George Russell and Lewis Hamilton from Mercedes tallying fifth and seventh positions. Red Bull’s Max Verstappen, the reigning world champion, secured the sixth spot.
Post the unsettling crash, the race, located in Monte Carlo, became a sluggish march. Leclerc exhibited excellent control, shaping the pace from the front, albeit the race turned out to be monotonous. The racing order of the top ten was unchanged, with overtakes remaining absent. Verstappen merely cruising around to secure his sixth position held importance as his lead was trimmed to 31 points over Leclerc.
The local crowd were unbothered by the nature of the victory and were seen engaged in cheerful celebrations. Leclerc was visibly thrilled to grab his first victory on the home circuit in six attempts, after previous failures to reach the podium. This had resulted in the coining of the term “Monaco curse” for the 26-year-old, who seemed doomed to lose despite favourable chances.
Past races had been challenging for Leclerc, like the 2021 race where a pre-race crash forced his car’s retirement, or in 2022 when a failed strategy from Ferrari caused his lead to vanish. Breaking the jinx, Leclerc triumphs for the first time since the 2022 Austrian GP, marking Ferrari’s first Monaco win since 2017.
The race was marked by Pérez’s terrifying crash, but Leclerc managed to maintain the lead, providing a thrilling start to the race.
Pérez, who initially started in 16th position, was nudged from the rear by Kevin Magnussen’s Haas, as they traversed the Beau Rivage climb. This collision sent Pérez sideways, resulting in a tumultuous crash which left the debris of his car spread across the track, with only a single wheel remaining on his battered vehicle. Both Haas cars were caught up in the incident, however, thankfully all drivers walked away unscathed. A significant red flag period followed due to the vast nature of the crash.
The tremendous scale of the collision, occurring at roughly 150mph on an uphill acceleration, accentuates the incredible safety measures of contemporary cars and the rigorous pre-season trials enforced by the FIA, specifically those related to the survival cell of the cockpit.
The FIA labelled the event as a byproduct of racing and saw no need for further investigation. Nevertheless, racing was paused for 45 minutes as marshals mended the barriers compromised from the collision’s force.
Upon restarting, Leclerc once again maintained his lead, with the field successfully completing an incident-free opening lap. Benefiting from the red-flag interval to switch to hard tyres, the top teams were poised for a race void of mandated pit stops, with 75 laps in sight.
The three frontrunners, Leclerc, Piastri and Sainz, held a close-knit formation, following each other by less than a second at the seventh lap, while Norris trailed closely. The race involved exceptional tyre and pace management, dictated by the nature of the track and ensuring tyre performance for the long haul.
While the race is often praised as F1’s crowning glory, the incident deprived spectators of the thrill that pit-stop strategies typically provide, resulting in a monotonous lap after lap at a snail’s pace with minimal overtaking opportunities, creating a lethargic procession.
On the race’s 39th round, Ferrari instructed Leclerc to further reduce his speed, a depressing radio communication, demonstrating the outdated characteristics of the circuit and its inadequacies in accommodating today’s F1 cars. This criticism has reemerged during this particular racing weekend.
Hamilton and Verstappen both decided to take a pit stop, switching from their medium tyres in the last part of the race, hoping it might change the game. Regrettably, they came out in the same positions they had prior to the pit stop. Verstappen then pursued Russell at fifth position, yet even with his new tyres, he couldn’t get ahead, while Leclerc relished his win from the cockpit, although it wasn’t as exhilarating for the spectators. As for the others, Tsunoda finished eighth for RB, Albon earned ninth place for Williams, and Gasly rounded off the top ten for Alpine. – Guardian