The native of Monaco wins “his” race – and thus ends a black streak. There is a moment of shock right at the beginning. One of the victims: the only German in the field.
At the sixth attempt, it finally worked: Ferrari driver Charles Leclerc won the Monaco Grand Prix. The native of Monaco won his “home race” with ease and celebrated his first success in the principality – in his five races so far, the 26-year-old either did not finish at all or missed the podium.
Oscar Piastri (McLaren) finished second on Sunday, ahead of Leclerc’s teammate Carlos Sainz. World champion Max Verstappen was frustrated by mixed qualifying results and ended up finishing sixth. Verstappen leads the World Championship standings with a 31-point lead over Leclerc – the gap has not been this small since the beginning of April.
However, right at the start, the race was affected by a serious crash involving Kevin Magnussen (Haas) and Sergio Pérez (Red Bull), which also damaged the Haas of German driver Nico Hülkenberg so badly that the 36-year-old also had to park his car. After a long break, the race was restarted.
This is how the race went:
At the drivers’ parade shortly before the start, he waved to the crowd once again, “I just want to get in the car now and get it done,” said Leclerc – but when the red lights finally went out, he had to get out again pretty quickly.
He defended his lead at the start, but a lot was happening behind him. Sainz dared to attack Piastri in the first corner, but didn’t quite manage to get past him – his car was obviously damaged in the process, because he slid straight ahead at the Casino, unable to maneuver.
At that moment, Ferrari’s tactical advantage with two cars in the lead was apparently gone, but further back there was a huge crash: On the way up to the casino, Kevin Magnussen in the Haas touched Sergio Perez’s Red Bull, which then crashed into the guard rails and was completely destroyed. Both Haas cars were also hit, and Hülkenberg’s race was over. “I wasn’t really involved and I’m out anyway,” he said on Sky, saying it was “frustrating.”
For Leclerc, however, this incident was a gift. The red flag followed, interrupting the race. Ferrari got Sainz back into the race, and Leclerc was able to switch from the medium tires to the hard compound at the front. The mandatory pit stop had already been completed, Leclerc could now drive through on these tires and no longer had to fear any strategic tricks from the competition.
From that moment on, everything was in Leclerc’s favor. He managed the race, saved the tires, because on the narrow track Piastri could not find a way past even a leisurely driving Leclerc. The technology had to hold up, Leclerc was not allowed to make any mistakes – all of that worked. And the curse was broken.