Charles Leclerc on Sunday claimed an emotional first Monaco Grand Prix victory, finally breaking his hometown circuit curse as Red Bull had a weekend to forget.
Three-time world champion Max Verstappen scraped in sixth after Sergio Perez crashed out, the Mexican’s Red Bull ripped apart, in a first-lap pileup.
Leclerc in contrast had a Sunday afternoon drive he will remember for the rest of his life.
Photo: Reuters
The 26-year-old, who had not claimed a Monaco podium in his five previous attempts, became the first Monegasque to win at home since the world championship started in 1950.
After climbing from his car, he jumped into the arms of his team after finally translating pole position into victory on his home streets at the third attempt.
“No words can explain it. It’s such a difficult race. I think that twice starting on pole position and we couldn’t get it makes it even better,” he said, fighting back tears. “It means a lot. It is the race that made me dream of becoming a Formula One driver.”
Photo: Reuters
“Already the emotions were coming, 15 laps from the end, I was thinking of my dad a lot more than what I thought while driving. He has given everything for me to be here. It was our dream for me to race here and to win so it is unbelievable,” Leclerc said.
His triumph ended his run of failing to win from his previous 12 pole position starts and was received with popular acclaim by a big crowd packed into the famous Mediterranean harbor on a sunlit afternoon.
Leclerc came home 7.152 seconds ahead of nearest rival Oscar Piastri of McLaren, with Carlos Sainz taking third in the second Ferrari ahead of Lando Norris in the second McLaren. George Russell was fifth for Mercedes ahead of Verstappen and seven-time champion Lewis Hamilton in the second Mercedes.
On a perfect Riviera afternoon Leclerc made a clean start to pull clear, while behind him Piastri and Sainz went into Ste Devote side by side and collided in the first of three accidents on the opening lap. Before Sainz could recover, the race was red-flagged when Perez and the two Haas cars tangled at the back of the field.
Perez spun and clipped the barriers before he hit Nico Hulkenberg and then Kevin Magnussen at an estimated 240kph on the climb toward Massenet.
“Unnecessary,” a furious Hulkenberg said.
Magnussen faced a possible race ban, but escaped blame.
In another opening lap incident, the two Alpines collided when Esteban Ocon attempted to dive inside Pierre Gasly at Le Portier, but only succeeded in creating an airborne drama. Ocon was handed a 10-second penalty, to be applied as a five-place grid drop in Canada.
All the drivers were unscathed in the mechanical carnage, but the damage to a barrier at Beau Rivage required lengthy repairs before a restart.
Sainz was restored to third on the grid and this time made an uneventful start behind Leclerc and Piastri. More than ever, the race was about tire management, as Leclerc controlled a steady pace at the front to the frustration of Russell, in fifth on mediums, ahead of Verstappen and Hamilton. The top four were all on hards.
“At this stage, George, we gain nothing from driving faster,” Mercedes told Russell while Verstappen’s Red Bull engineer Gianpiero Lambiase said: “He’s just giving them a free pit-stop gap eventually.”
The cat-and-mouse form of high-speed chess, by pit-wall boffins and their drivers, reduced the spectacle to a procession, the top four separated by less than a second, and Russell nine seconds back in fifth, with Verstappen and Hamilton, all on mediums.
By lap 26, of the 78, even the drivers were suffering ennui.
“This is really boring,” Verstappen said. “I should have brought my pillow.”
For the leading teams, it was about calculating risks, gaps and tire wear, with Leclerc in charge.
On lap 39, Ferrari asked him to slow and reduce the gap from Norris, in fourth, to Russell.
“What is the scope in that?” Leclerc asked, before obeying.
The pack had to follow suit and closed up, but despite pit stops by Hamilton and Verstappen, the order remained unchanged at the flag.
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