Charles Leclerc received his first Monaco Grand Prix with a lights-to-flag victory on dwelling soil after an enormous crash on the opening lap which noticed the race stopped.
Leclerc held off an early problem 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 needed to accept sixth, in between the Mercedes of George Russell in fifth and Lewis Hamilton in seventh, and sees his championship lead over Leclerc lowered to 31 factors.
Ferrari’s double podium means they’re solely 24 factors behind Crimson Bull within the Constructors’ Standings after eight rounds.
The race was red-flagged on the primary lap on account of a giant crash between Kevin Magnussen, Sergio Perez and Nico Hulkenberg after Flip One, with all three drivers unharmed regardless of the high-speed collision.
RB’s Yuki Tsunoda scored factors for a 3rd consecutive race with eighth place, forward of Alex Albon, who gave Williams their first factors of the season, and Alpine’s Pierre Gasly in tenth.
Leclerc ends Monaco curse
Leclerc had claimed pole twice in Monaco earlier than this weekend however hadn’t completed on the rostrum on account of earlier misfortune or group errors.
The 26-year-old knew he had one other large probability when he took pole on Saturday with a shocking lap and acquired a great launch on the primary begin, earlier than the pink flag was referred to as as a result of large accident behind between Perez and the Haas drivers.
Sainz acquired a giant slice of luck as a result of he suffered a puncture after making contact with Piastri and stopped at Flip 4 on the primary begin, earlier than crawling again to the pit lane, however was restored to his beginning place of third for the restart.
Anthony Davidson and Jenson Button analyse Carlos Sainz’s conflict with Oscar Piastri to trigger his puncture
Because of the race being suspended, everybody modified tyres to clear the regulation of utilizing two totally different tyre compounds within the race.
The Ferraris and McLarens switched from mediums to hards, whereas Russell, Verstappen and Hamilton went from hards to mediums.
This time, the restart was clear and the highest 10 stayed in the identical order, which remained the case for the remainder of the 78 laps round Monaco.
Charles Leclerc lifts the curse of profitable in his dwelling city of Monaco
Leclerc initially drove comparatively slowly to save lots of his tyres and preserve the sector collectively, with a purpose to cease Piastri, or Norris in fourth, from attempting an undercut.
Piastri acquired very shut through the opening 20 laps and had one small take a look at Portier, which was as shut as he acquired to taking the lead.
Because the race went on, Piastri could not put as a lot stress on the Ferrari driver, who cruised away within the closing levels to win by 7.1 seconds.
Sainz confronted stress from Norris all through the race within the battle for third however managed to carry off the British driver and safe his fourth podium of the yr.
Leclerc runs to have fun his first dwelling win in Monaco with the Ferrari group
Extra to observe…
Formulation 1 leaves Europe for the ultimate time earlier than the summer time break because the championship strikes on to Montreal for the Canadian Grand Prix. Watch each session on the Circuit Gilles Villeneuve from June 7-9 stay on Sky Sports activities F1, with Sunday’s race at 7pm. Stream each F1 race and extra with a NOW Sports activities Month Membership – No contract, cancel anytime
