Charles Leclerc won his first Monaco Grand Prix with a lights-to-flag victory on home soil after a huge crash on the opening lap which saw the race stopped.
Leclerc held off an early challenge from McLaren’s Oscar Piastri to take his first win since July 2022 as his Ferrari team-mate Carlos Sainz took third and Lando Norris was fourth.
Max Verstappen had to settle for sixth, in between the Mercedes of George Russell in fifth and Lewis Hamilton in seventh, and sees his championship lead over Leclerc reduced to 31 points.
Ferrari’s double podium means they are only 24 points behind Red Bull in the Constructors’ Standings after eight rounds.
The race was red-flagged on the first lap due to a big crash between Kevin Magnussen, Sergio Perez and Nico Hulkenberg after Turn One, with all three drivers unhurt despite the high-speed collision.
RB’s Yuki Tsunoda scored points for a third consecutive race with eighth place, ahead of Alex Albon, who gave Williams their first points of the season, and Alpine’s Pierre Gasly in 10th.
Leclerc ends Monaco curse
Leclerc had claimed pole twice in Monaco before this weekend but hadn’t finished on the podium due to previous misfortune or team mistakes.
The 26-year-old knew he had another big chance when he took pole on Saturday with a stunning lap and got a good launch on the first start, before the red flag was called due to the big accident behind between Perez and the Haas drivers.
Sainz got a big slice of luck because he suffered a puncture after making contact with Piastri and stopped at Turn Four on the first start, before crawling back to the pit lane, but was restored to his starting place of third for the restart.
Due to the race being suspended, everyone changed tyres to clear the regulation of using two different tyre compounds in the race.
The Ferraris and McLarens switched from mediums to hards, while Russell, Verstappen and Hamilton went from hards to mediums.
This time, the restart was clean and the top 10 stayed in the same order, which remained the case for the rest of the 78 laps around Monaco.
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Charles Leclerc lifts the curse of winning in his home town of Monaco
Leclerc initially drove relatively slowly to save his tyres and keep the field together, in order to stop Piastri, or Norris in fourth, from trying an undercut.
Piastri got very close during the opening 20 laps and had one small look at Portier, which was as close as he got to taking the lead.
As the race went on, Piastri couldn’t put as much pressure on the Ferrari driver, who cruised away in the closing stages to win by 7.1 seconds.
Sainz faced pressure from Norris throughout the race in the battle for third but managed to hold off the British driver and secure his fourth podium of the year.
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Leclerc runs to celebrate his first home win in Monaco with the Ferrari team
More to follow…
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