Charles Leclerc can finally call himself the winner of the Monaco Grand Prix. Despite a mammoth stint on hard tires, he left the competition no chance. Max Verstappen failed with a strategy gamble. The biggest drama occurred at the first attempt to start the race, when a serious accident occurred between Sergio Perez and the two Haas cars, which caused a long break in the race. Fortunately, all drivers were uninjured.
The winner: The accident at the start meant that everyone was able to change tires and drive through under the red flag after the first lap. Leclerc did not shy away from this challenge and never let it throw him off his stride in an uneventful race at the front. Oscar Piastri kept up the pressure for a long time, but the Ferrari in front of him simply made no mistakes. He wins for the first time since Austria 2022, his sixth victory.
The podium: Piastri was slightly hit by Sainz at the first start, who then had extreme luck at the restart thanks to a decision by the race director. He had actually fallen far behind with a puncture, but he regained third place and played the role of strategic rear guard for Leclerc until the finish, outbraking Lando Norris. The second McLaren came fourth.
The result: George Russell had to drive on medium tires for almost the entire race. A late stop by Max Verstappen and Lewis Hamilton put him under pressure, but it wasn’t enough. Both got stuck behind Russell despite having much fresher hard tires. Hamilton kept the fastest lap as a consolation prize. Behind them, Yuki Tsunoda, Alex Albon and Pierre Gasly (despite a collision with teammate Esteban Ocon) completed the points positions. Relative to the starting grid, nothing had changed.
The cars behind were all far behind. Lance Stroll failed to use an alternative strategy because of contact with the wall. Four cars were eliminated from the race on the first lap: Sergio Perez and the two Haas in the big crash at the start, Esteban Ocon after a collision with Pierre Gasly.
The highlights of the Formula 1 race in Monaco
- Serious crash with Perez, Magnussen & Hülkenberg
- Leclerc overcomes the Monaco curse
- New tires not enough for Verstappen against Mercedes
- Albon & Gasly finally in the points
- Ocon shoots himself out in Alpine’s internal duel
Formula 1 – 2024 World Championship standings: Leclerc & Ferrari are actually getting closer
The World Cup table: Leclerc’s victory and Perez’s retirement make both championship tables somewhat interesting for the first time in a long time. Ferrari has reduced the gap to Red Bull to 24 points, while Leclerc now has 138 points to Verstappen’s 169. Yuki Tsunoda and the Racing Bulls are increasing their midfield lead, while Alex Albon’s ninth place lifts Williams to eighth team position.
Formula 1 2024: Overall ranking of drivers and teams
Before the start: There was zero chance of rain in the sunshine, but instead the asphalt was hot, just like on Saturday, at 48 degrees Celsius. The air temperature was 21 degrees. The Haas were at the very back after being disqualified from qualifying, but they did not start from the pit lane. Red Bull, Mercedes, Aston Martin, Ocon, Sargeant, Bottas and Magnussen opted for hard tires. The rest started on medium tires.
First start aborted after serious crash
The first attempt to start was over after half a lap. Only Leclerc was driving comfortably in front, and from second place on things went smoothly. But the worst was at the back of the field. Sergio Perez, who had got off to a bad start, was overtaken by Valtteri Bottas in the first corner and was then slow on the way up to Beau Rivage. An ambitious Kevin Magnussen stuck the nose of his Haas into a rapidly closing gap on the right and shot the Red Bull into the barrier. Nico Hülkenberg was innocently involved. Fortunately, all three drivers were uninjured.
A lot of things were broken at the front too. Carlos Sainz tried to push past Oscar Piastri in Ste. Devote and slashed his left front tire. At the Casino he finally stopped in the emergency exit. A few corners later there was a crash between Alpines. Esteban Ocon squeezed into the inside of Portier next to Pierre Gasly. Gasly ran out of space at the exit and used his right front wheel to push his teammate off the track. Both Alpines suffered suspension damage.
The stewards began investigations against Sainz and Ocon. Ocon received a five-place penalty for the next GP, Sainz was acquitted. The violent crash in Beau Rivage triggered a long red flag to replace the crash barriers that Perez had badly damaged. The race director decided that the starting grid was the last clearly determinable order. Sainz therefore got his third place back. Ocon was unable to take up his eleventh place again, his Alpine was irreparably damaged. The Gasly car was repaired once again.
Everyone wants to drive through after start crash in Monaco
The red flag after one lap allowed everyone to change tires for free. Only Sargeant did not make use of this. In theory, everyone else was now able to drive to the finish without another stop. The leaders could switch to hard tires for this. But for drivers like Russell, Verstappen and Norris, who had started on hard tires, this was a problem: 76 laps on medium tires.
Leclerc also held his own in the second start. Piastri’s second start was better, this time Sainz could not attack. The top 11 remained unchanged. At the back, Alonso passed Ricciardo, Bottas passed Sargeant.
Then the slow pace began. The top four drove slowly themselves, but a gap quickly grew between them and Russell, Verstappen and Hamilton, who went into extreme economy mode with the medium. Piastri received a warning at the front that something on the underbody had broken when Sainz made contact, but the damage had no significant impact, especially at such a slow pace. He was able to keep up with Leclerc at all times.
Piastri was actually in a very good mood in the early stages, rarely being more than a second behind Leclerc. It was only from lap 20 that they managed to get back in front. The quartet had already pulled away from Russell, Verstappen and Hamilton by more than ten seconds. These three had in turn left Tsunoda, Albon Gasly and Stroll far behind. Valtteri Bottas stopped on lap 16 to switch back to hard tyres. Within just eight laps he had caught up with the field behind, but overtaking was impossible.
Ferrari & McLaren play poker for late pit stop
A game of poker began at the front in the middle section. Leclerc and Sainz’s aim was to keep the pace low enough that Russell at least stayed in the pit stop window. Ferrari was worried that McLaren would otherwise bring Norris into the pits again and build up pressure. So Leclerc kept the pace low at the front, kept being told Russell’s lap times and kept the gap at around 14 seconds.
At McLaren, they were hoping for a break-in from Ferrari. Graining was already beginning to appear on the SF-24s on lap 30, while Piastri and Norris reported only slight wear. Another factor in the equation was that Sainz no longer had medium tires due to the start incident – Norris did.
Verstappen beats Mercedes in the final sprint
On lap 52, Lewis Hamilton stopped because he had enough space behind him. This brought Verstappen in one lap later to react and secure his place. The Red Bull driver drove a lightning-fast inlap. Russell therefore did not risk a stop and stayed out. The fact that he then increased the speed and at the same time slowed Sainz down at the front prevented Norris from getting a free stop.
However, on the old tires, Russell was sometimes several seconds slower. After ten laps, Verstappen had caught up with him. Further back in the field, Lance Stroll had shown that overtaking with a gigantic tire advantage was possible. He had stopped twice – once for free, then again because of a tire puncture caused by contact with the wall. On soft tires, he overtook Zhou and Sargeant in quick succession.
But Verstappen had put on the hard tires. This meant he didn’t have enough of a pace advantage and he got stuck behind Russell again. And so the race for the points was over. The top 10 crossed the finish line without any position changes, even though Piastri fell significantly behind in the final. At the back, there were pit stops for Sargeant and Zhou, but they were not particularly significant. Despite new soft tires, Zhou failed to set the fastest lap and came last.