Charles Leclerc Finally Wins his Home Race in the Principality

Leclerc took pole position yesterday for the third time making it third time lucky for taking his first win. It was a family affair (if you know, you know) on the front row with Oscar Piastri starting in second place. Ex-teammates Carlos Sainz and Lando Norris were third and fourth respectively.

Max Verstappen found himself down in sixth place. It was even worse luck for the two Haas cars who were disqualified from qualifying after a DRS breach. The pair would start from the back of the grid.

As the lights went out, Leclerc held onto his lead out front. However, it was again Piastri and Sainz who made contact with each other on the exit of the first corner. This resulted in Sainz getting a puncture heading up the hill. He locked up and all the cars went past him.

Well, all but three. At the back of the grid, there was a huge crash between Red Bull’s Sergio Perez and the two Haas cars – resulting in the red flag being bought out. Replays showed that Kevin Magnussen touched the wall going up the hill which sent him into Perez. Hulkenberg tried his best to get past the accident scene but unfortunately he was taken out too.

Before the red flag was even flown, there was an incident between the two Alpine drivers down just before the tunnel. This isn’t the first time ‘Frenchpine’ have made contact since they became teammates last year. This time, Esteban Ocon made what could be called a ‘desperate’ move on his fellow Frenchman. This contact left Ocon airborne and Gasly picking up slight damage.

Strong words were spoken after this incident by members at Alpine. Bruno Famin (Alpine team principal) stated that “Esteban’s attack was out of place. It was not what we wanted to see. There will be consequences. We are going to have to make a difficult decision.” This has left fans wondering if Ocon will be replaced for the Candian Grand Prix. Only time will tell! But if he’s not, then he will have to serve a 5-place grid penalty.

After a 45-minute red flag wait, racing was about to resume. Four cars were already out of the race (Perez, Magnussen, Hulkenberg and Ocon). After his earlier puncture, Sainz was moved back up the order into third place where he started the first time.

Leclerc led away proceedings once again, and the order remained the same at the top of the grid. In the classic Monaco fashion, it was a follow the leader parade.

On Lap 10, Piastri claimed fastest lap as he stayed in DRS range of Leclerc in P1. Sainz was close behind, followed by Norris, Russell – who seemed to be trying to preserve his medium tyres – and Verstappen rounding out the top 6.

A few laps later, the gap in front had closed. Elsewhere on the grid, Bottas pitted from the medium tyres to the hard tyre. He then set the fastest lap soon after.

A concerned Sainz came on the radio asking is Leclerc was managing, the Spaniard suggesting that Piastri could “send it” at any moment if an opportunity appears.

A little further back, the top 10 was rounded out by Tsunoda, Albon and Gasly – all aiming for points in P8, P9 and P10.

The top four (who were all on hard tyres) looked to have increased their pace by Lap 23. Russell was being left behind in fifth – and he had 3-time World Champion, Max Verstappen behind him. In P12, Alonso was leading a train all the way to Bottas in P16.

The most exciting thing during the race was probably the question of whether Norris would be able to create a big enough gap to Russell behind in order to get a ‘free’ pit stop. In short, the answer to that was no. McLaren, it could be said, missed an opportunity to pit Norris when the gap between the Brits was 21 seconds. After that, the gap shortened and the papaya team couldn’t bring in their newest race winner.

The race leaders started to approach the backmarkers whom they needed to try and overtake on the tight streets of Monte Carlo. This started off with Bottas – who was still putting in fastest laps!

Stroll took a trip to the pits and emerged back in P11. He had a 20-second gap to Pierre Gasly ahead. This was a battle for the last points paying positions. That was until Stroll reported having a puncture after clipping the barriers. He made it back to the pits and his punctured tyre rolled off near the pit lane.

A few more drivers pitted. One of these was Lewis Hamilton who pitted from P7 and emerged in the same position due to having a big enough gap to Tsunoda behind. Verstappen also pitted the following lap and slotted back into P6 where he pitted from. The Dutchman began to eat into Russell’s gap – and with fresher tyres, it would only be a matter of time as to when the World Champ would be on Russell’s tail.

The last few laps were quite straight forward and the cars made their way round the circuit lap by lap. Leclerc vowed to “bring it home” in front of his home crowd. Behind him, Piastri, Sainz and Norris were all relatively close to each other. The battle for the remaining two steps of the podium was heating up – but it is Monaco…and we know how hard it is to overtake here!

Leclerc crossed the line in P1, taking his first ever home win! It was an emotional one for the fan favourite who had been waiting for this moment his whole life.

The remaining podium positions went to Piastri and Sainz. They were followed by Norris, Russell, Verstappen, Hamilton and Tsunoda. Albon and Gasly claimed their first points of the season in P9 and P10 – the first points of the 2024 season for Williams.

Here is the final classification:

Leclerc (DOTD)

Piastri

Sainz

Norris

Russell

Verstappen

Hamilton (Fastest Lap)

Tsunoda

Albon

Gasly

Alonso

Ricciardo

Bottas

Stroll

Sargeant

Zhou

Ocon (DNF)

Perez (DNF)

Hulkenberg (DNF)

Magnussen (DNF)

Here is a quote from our race winner: "No words can explain that. It’s such a difficult race, I think the fact that twice I’ve been starting on pole position and we couldn’t quite make it makes it even better in a way. It means a lot, obviously.

"It’s the race that made me dream of becoming a Formula 1 driver one day. It was a difficult race emotionally because already 15 laps to the end you’re just hoping that nothing happens, already the emotions were coming. I have to say that I was thinking to my dad a lot more than what I thought while driving. Obviously he’s given everything for me to be here, and it was a dream of ours for me to race here and to win, so it’s unbelievable."

In two weeks’ time F1 heads west to the Circuit Gilles Villeneuve in Canada. We have now had four different race winners in F1 in 2024. Will Canada bring us a fifth? We will find out soon!