King in his domain. Monegasque Charles Leclerc (Ferrari) won the Monaco Grand Prix on Sunday for the first time in his Formula 1 career, the 8th round of the season. Starting in pole position, the local rider managed to keep the lead throughout the race. He did not need to make a pit stop after the deployment of the red flags following the collision between Sergio Perez, Kevin Magnussen and Nico Hulkenberg.
The Australian Oscar Piastri (McLaren) and the Spaniard Carlos Sainz (Ferrari) completed the podium. Triple reigning world champion, Max Verstappen finished sixth but retains the lead in the championship ahead of Leclerc, second in the general classification.
“It’s difficult to express what I feel,” he declared, moved, at the microphone of Canal+. It’s such a tough race. I have already obtained two pole positions without ever having managed to convert that into victory. That makes this victory even sweeter. I don’t have the words. In the last fifteen laps, the emotion was at its height, I thought of my father (who died in 2017), who gave everything for me to be here. He dreamed of me racing here and winning, it’s incredible.”
The third driver in history to represent Monaco in the elite, he is the first Monegasque to win on the Rock in F1. He won his sixth F1 GP in “his” streets after an overall rather insipid race. Until now, in five participations, Leclerc had never done better than fourth place (in 2022) in Monaco. Worse: he systematically had to abandon between 2017 (when he was still in F21) and 2021, after technical problems or collisions. But that was before.