Charles Leclerc finally took victory around the famous streets of Monaco on Sunday, converting his third pole position at his home race to the win ahead of Oscar Piastri and his Scuderia Ferrari teammate, Carlos Sainz Jr.
The 2024 Monaco Grand Prix was a race that lacked overtaking action, although there was plenty of drama on lap one, with a red flag coming out and delaying proceedings for almost an hour. Many of the drivers completed the race on the tyres they started with on lap three after the red flag, including the top four runners.
What happened during the race?
Leclerc got a great launch on the front row to fend off Piastri alongside him. Sainz in the other Ferrari also got a good start bringing him alongside the McLaren on the front row. The Spaniard moved alongside the Australian but some contact gave Sainz a puncture, causing him to fall down the order.
Further back there was a massive crash, bringing out the red flag. Sergio Pérez was squeezed up Beau Rivage by the two Haas F1 Team drivers, but Kevin Magnussen in particular. The Dane spun round Pérez after getting too close to the former Monaco Grand Prix winner. Nico Hülkenberg was caught up in the accident too, getting spun round. The incident left all three drivers out of the race.
The two BWT Alpine F1 Team drivers also came together on lap one at Portier. Esteban Ocon tried to pass his teammate, Pierre Gasly on the inside but the room wasn’t there causing Gasly to lift his teammates car onto three wheels and up in the air. Gasly, who secured Alpine’s first Q3 and top ten start on Saturday, wasn’t pleased with his teammate at all as the red flag came out for the accident involved the two Haas cars and Pérez. Team boss Bruno Famin wasn’t pleased with Ocon when speaking on French TV.
There was a lengthy delay to get the race restarted with damage to the barriers. Sainz managed to keep his third place start, despite falling to the back of the order with a puncture. Ocon didn’t start the second time around after damage to his car due to the incident with Gasly on lap one.
After almost an hour of delays, the race got back underway and this time there was no incidents on lap one as all 16 remaining drivers got through without an issue. Daniel Ricciardo lost a place on the start to Fernando Alonso after starting on the hard tyres, compared to Alonso’s mediums. Most of the drivers planned to stay out on their tyres until the end of the race.
George Russell was all over the back of Lando Norris on the first few laps after the restart, but was unable to get past his fellow countryman before a radio message from his race engineer asked him to drop back from the McLaren F1 Team driver.
Valtteri Bottas was the first driver to make a pitstop, onto a new set of hard tyres, a low risk gamble for Stake F1 Team Kick Sauber. As usual at the Monaco Grand Prix, the race entered a tyre management stage, with the top four close together out front with a gap back George Russell in fifth. Max Verstappen wasn’t lightning up the timing screens back in sixth,, ahead of Lewis Hamilton in seventh. Aston Martin Armaco F1 Team were also managing their medium tyres with a potential top ten finish on the cards for either driver later on in the race.
Alonso continued to back up runners behind him, opening up a large gap between himself and his teammate ahead. Ricciardo, Logan Sargeant, Guanyu Zhou and Bottas were all behind the Spaniard.
There was some action on lap 52. Lance Stroll came into the pits for a new set of tyres to chase down Gasly in tenth. After just a few laps on the tyres, he tapped the wall at the Nouvelle Chicane, causing a puncture. The stewards didn’t deem any action necessary with the Canadian able to get into the pit and change onto the soft tyres.
Hamilton and Verstappen then took free stops with a large gap behind him to Yuki Tsunoda in eighth. They came out in the same positions, Verstappnen in sixth, Hamilton in seventh.
Without much drama apart from the lap 1 red flag, the Monaco Grand Prix came to a conclusion with Leclerc taking victory around the streets of his home town, while Piastri was able to hold off Sainz in the final few laps.
Norris finished just over a second away from second but ended the day in fourth, while George Russell did an excellent job to hold off Verstappen and Hamilton, who had a pace advantage after pitting during the race.
Tsunoda finished in eighth, making it five points finishes in six races, ahead of Alex Albon, who secured Williams Racing’s first point of 2024. Gasly rounded out the top ten, scoring his first point of the season and just Alpine’s second.
Alonso was in eleventh, while Ricciardo was just behind in twelfth. The Australian didn’t really have a chance to show his true pace after a disappointing qualifying. Bottas, Stroll, Sargeant and Zhou rounded out the runners that finished.
Final Classification:
| POS | NO | DRIVER | CAR | LAPS | TIME/RETIRED | PTS |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 16 | Charles Leclerc | FERRARI | 78 | 2:23:15.554 | 25 |
| 2 | 81 | Oscar Piastri | MCLAREN MERCEDES | 78 | +7.152s | 18 |
| 3 | 55 | Carlos Sainz | FERRARI | 78 | +7.585s | 15 |
| 4 | 4 | Lando Norris | MCLAREN MERCEDES | 78 | +8.650s | 12 |
| 5 | 63 | George Russell | MERCEDES | 78 | +13.309s | 10 |
| 6 | 1 | Max Verstappen | RED BULL RACING HONDA RBPT | 78 | +13.853s | 8 |
| 7 | 44 | Lewis Hamilton | MERCEDES | 78 | +14.908s | 7 |
| 8 | 22 | Yuki Tsunoda | RB HONDA RBPT | 77 | +1 lap | 4 |
| 9 | 23 | Alexander Albon | WILLIAMS MERCEDES | 77 | +1 lap | 2 |
| 10 | 10 | Pierre Gasly | ALPINE RENAULT | 77 | +1 lap | 1 |
| 11 | 14 | Fernando Alonso | ASTON MARTIN ARAMCO MERCEDES | 76 | +2 laps | 0 |
| 12 | 3 | Daniel Ricciardo | RB HONDA RBPT | 76 | +2 laps | 0 |
| 13 | 77 | Valtteri Bottas | KICK SAUBER FERRARI | 76 | +2 laps | 0 |
| 14 | 18 | Lance Stroll | ASTON MARTIN ARAMCO MERCEDES | 76 | +2 laps | 0 |
| 15 | 2 | Logan Sargeant | WILLIAMS MERCEDES | 76 | +2 laps | 0 |
| 16 | 24 | Zhou Guanyu | KICK SAUBER FERRARI | 76 | +2 laps | 0 |
| NC | 31 | Esteban Ocon | ALPINE RENAULT | 0 | DNF | 0 |
| NC | 11 | Sergio Perez | RED BULL RACING HONDA RBPT | 0 | DNF | 0 |
| NC | 27 | Nico Hulkenberg | HAAS FERRARI | 0 | DNF | 0 |
| NC | 20 | Kevin Magnussen | HAAS FERRARI | 0 | DNF | 0 |
