Monaco is definitely a race where the Saturday is crucial for the Sunday’s performance. Charles Leclerc’s performance all weekend was impeccable. He showed great pace in the practice sessions and smashed qualifying. He truly was a different animal compared to the rest of the pack.

Your predictions this week were spot on. Give yourself a pat on the back and crack open a beer. Although race position from qualifying is a large factor in a race win here. After the last 3 races I am going to have to add some more names to these polls.

Leclerc got off the line very well and so did Sainz. Piastri and Sainz were battling in to turn one and the rest of the sector. Sainz ended up contacting Piastri and causing a yellow flag with a puncture.

At almost the exact same time Magnussen tried to be a hero on the first lap trying to overtake Perez. Perez pinched him in which caused a 3 car crash between MAG, PER and HUL. (It is worth noting that Perez did check his mirror’s several times but pinched Mag anyway. Likely the only reason MAG didn’t get a race ban). Haas received a disqualification from qualifying for an illegal DRS set up and then didn’t even make it around the second corner. This also doesn’t help Perez’ contract negotiations by turning you car into a unicycle.

This incident obviously caused a Red Flag however it wasn’t the final incident of the first lap. Coming out of Portier into the tunnel Ocon nearly flipped his car trying to overtake his teammate Gasly. Let’s just say Ocon maybe sitting out of the next race judging by the team principals comments. It was a completely unnecessary move. The damage it caused meant Ocon had to retire the car once back to the pits. Gasly’s pod cam of Ocon in the air showing everyone the Alpine’s floor design (Not that anyone wants it). Watch Below.

The race order was back to the qualifying order. This is because Zhou was not out of first sector therefore did not have a timing. According to FIA regulations if there is no sector time for every remaining driver then the grid will resume to the original starting grid. Given the above the original grid order is what started the race.

Zhou was blocked by the safety car which delayed him passing and had to crawl through the debris from the Red Flag incident. Carlos Sainz could not have been happier about this result as he was in 15th place entering the pits on lap 1.

The restart was a lot more cautious and Piastri got a far better start off the line to cover Sainz however not enough to pressure Leclerc. After that the Top 5 did not change. Sainz tried a late push on Piastri however It was nowhere near enough and Piastri managed to maintain P2 by making that car as wide as possible.

Stroll had a puncture and just about managed to make it to the pit lane. Shame as another safety car would’ve made it a lot more interesting. He did put the soft’s on and we saw some overtakes however there wasn’t much gain as Aston martin came away with no points. Likely some valuable performance data for their upgrades though.

The only interesting racing came between both of the Mercedes and remaining Red Bull. HAM pitted for the hards first. VER followed in the next lap to prevent the undercut however Mercedes told HAM that the out lap was not crucial. HAM did not push and VER actually gained significant time on HAM as he was pushing on his in lap. HAM did close down the gap to within DRS range leaving VER in a sandwich of silver arrows however Mercedes left it too late and HAM couldn’t quite take VER. It likely made VER more defensive in turn helping RUS preserve his position on the old mediums and maximise Mercedes points. Great drive and tyre management by RUS I think that has been overlooked in the press.

Tyre Analysis

Let look at the Tyre strategy. During the race I asked you guys if you think the Hard compound would last. 55.6% of you said no. Unfortunately you were wrong and we didn’t see any pitting for the points contenders.

What we found in this race is that race position is truly king around Monaco. We already knew that but even more than ever before (Rhyming). All you need is a good exit out of Portier and Noughes and the rest of the track can be used to preserve the tyres. Not only did the hard last the whole race but Russell on the mediums also managed to go the length and hold off Max Verstappen on newer but used hard compounds.

Hamilton came away with fastest lap making him the driver with the most fastest laps for a single team all time, with a total of 54. HAM did have the Fastest lap by some margin (4 tenths) however VER was stuck behind RUS making it difficult for to push.

The top 10 finished for the first time ever how they started the race. This is not a record really worth celebrating. The red flag rules of allowing the tyre change, and no obligatory pit stop under race conditions made a track that is already difficult to overtake even harder.

The cars quite frankly are too big for the track, and one of the only methods to acquire race positions nowadays is strategy, especially as the weather was not going to impact the race.

Hopefully over the next few years new regulations come in for Monaco as we can’t remove it from the calendar but 2 mandatory pit stops or some other compulsory tyre strategy will allow for more racing until the 2026 spec comes in with the smaller cars.

However with that said congratulations to Charles Leclerc. In his word it’s his childhood dream come true and he had an emotional moment dedicating the win to his late father.

Watch Highlights Here

Standings

Although the race was pretty boring, what it has done to the drivers and constructors standings is anything but. Leclerc is now 31 points behind Verstappen and Ferrari are pressuring RedBull only trailing by 24.

News Podium

1. ‘I haven’t made my mind up yet’ says Sainz as he assesses 2025 seat options. Read Here

2. ‘We deserved these points’ says Tsunoda after sealing first top-10 finish in Monaco Read Here

3. Alonso concerned Aston Martin are ‘back in the midfield’ after team fail to score in Monaco Read Here

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