In a race that is more about strategy than speed, Lando Norris clinched pole position to cut McLaren teammate Oscar Piastri’s championship lead to just three points.
Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc finished second overall in the home race he won last year, with Max Verstappen, Max Verstappen, and Piastri, third and fourth overall, finishing in the same order as their debut.
For the first time in a while, the Sunday afternoon race required two pit stops, but the cramped harbourside circuit’s lack of action was disappointing.
Verstappen held off his final stop until the final lap, while those who were behind bided their time while avoiding trouble as drivers through the field. In the end, Norris dominated all but four vehicles.
The victory was McLaren’s first at Monaco since 2008, and the Briton’s second in eight races.
“Monaco baby” The chequered flag finally fell as Norris yelled over the radio.
Leclerc was ahead and Leclerc was behind, but we won in Monaco, he said.
As a child, I had a dream that led to the realization of one of my dreams.
Lewis Hamilton of Ferrari placed fifth, Isack Hadjar of Racing Bulls in sixth place, and Esteban Ocon of Haas in seventh place.
In eighth place, Williams and Alex Albon and Carlos Sainz placed Liam Lawson on his first points of the season for Racing Bulls, and Williams placed him next.
After a nightmare in qualifying, with George Russell 11th and Italian rookie Andrea Kimi Antonelli 18th, the last vehicle was still in service, Mercedes had a disappointing afternoon in the Mediterranean sunshine.
When Antonelli passed on the inside of the tunnel’s portier, Gabriel Bortoleto, entered the virtual safety car on the opening lap.
Bortoleto continued after returning to the pits.
The Frenchman, Pierre Gasly, was the first retiree, colliding with Yuki Tsunoda’s Red Bull car at the tunnel exit on lap nine and hurling back to the pits with the front left wheel hanging off.
He’s an idiot, is he? What is he doing, exactly? sarcastically remarked Tsunoda.
Gasly careered through the Nouvelle Chicane almost slamming Argentine rookie teammate Franco Colapinto as he claimed to have no brakes.
Fernando Alonso, the double world champion, pulled off on lap 38 while driving a smoking car to keep his season-long scoreless run.
The next F1 event on the schedule will be the Spanish Grand Prix, which will take place on June 1.
Source: Aljazeera
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