Monaco,
Sunday, 26 May, 2024
McCreadie Andias
Charles Leclerc has finally taken victory in the Monaco Grand Prix, having enjoyed a mostly serene drive to P1 in front of his home fans despite early drama playing out at the start.
The red flags were thrown before the first lap of the iconic event had even been completed after a huge collision between Sergio Perez’s Red Bull and the two Haas cars of Kevin Magnussen and Nico Hulkenberg, putting all three out of the running.
Leclerc led away cleanly when proceedings were restarted – minus Esteban Ocon, who was forced to retire following heavy contact with Alpine team mate Pierre Gasly on Lap 1 – as a race of strategy played out, with all eyes on whether the leading cars would pit or make it to the end of the event.
But throughout it all, the Ferrari driver kept a cool head and remained ahead of his rivals to take his first win on the streets of Monte Carlo, beating his previous best result of P4.
Leclerc crossed the line seven seconds ahead of Oscar Piastri, who put in an assured drive in the McLaren and held off a late challenge from Carlos Sainz, with the Spaniard making it a double Ferrari podium in third. Sainz likewise was being chased down by Lando Norris throughout much of the latter stages, the second McLaren ending the day in fourth.
George Russell – running an upgraded front wing this weekend – was the lead Mercedes in fifth, having held off a charging Max Verstappen in what has been a challenging few days for Red Bull. Lewis Hamilton followed in seventh to add to the Silver Arrows’ points tally.
Yuki Tsunoda had another solid day by finishing eighth in the RB, while Alex Albon and Pierre Gasly both scored their first points of the year for Williams and Alpine in ninth and 10th respectively.
Fernando Alonso recovered somewhat following a difficult day on Saturday but just missed out on points, having finished in P11 for Aston Martin, ahead of Daniel Ricciardo in P12 for RB and Valtteri Bottas as the lead Kick Sauber in P13.
The margins were close at the front of the pack for much of the race
There was disappointment for Lance Stroll, who ended the event in P14 for Aston Martin after suffering a puncture following a pit stop in the second half of the race, while Williams’ Logan Sargeant followed in P15.
Zhou Guanyu became the last classified driver in 16th place for Kick Sauber, with four cars not making it beyond the first lap.
The aforementioned Ocon retired following his collision with Gasly, which has also earned him a five-place grid drop for the next race in Canada.
Perez, Magnussen and Hulkenberg joined him as the other retirees following their dramatic crash on the opening lap of the event.