Norris wins in Monaco to narrow gap to Piastri

Lando Norris, a McLaren driver, had the first copybook drive and was in charge from beginning to end of the Monaco Grand Prix.

For the Briton’s second victory of the season, Norris overcame the potential pitfalls of a new rule that requires drivers to use three sets of tyres throughout the race to maintain lead throughout.

Ferrari’s Lewis Hamilton was a distant fifth place, ahead of Max Verstappen and McLaren’s Oscar Piastri, who finished third.

The race broke out amid rumors about how the new law, which would increase risk, would be implemented, and amid rumors of wild strategies and potential chaos.

The only intervention by the safety car was an early virtual one following a Sauber’s Gabriel Bortoleto crash on the first lap, it turned out to be relatively straightforward for the front-runners.

As the top 10 walked away from the grid in order, Norris created a lead at the first corner from his excellent pole position, his first since the season-opening in Australia.

Norris fought through both pit stops because Leclerc, Leclerc, and Piastri all used the same formula to split the race roughly into thirds: starting on a medium tyre and then two stints on a hard.

Verstappen was disadvantaged when he entered the race with only one set of the available medium and hard tyres, which made him use the softs.

Red Bull ran him using an inverted approach, starting with the hards and moving up to the mediums, before holding off on until the final pit stop was as late as possible.

After Norris, Leclerc, and Piastri made their second stop with about 28 laps left, the Dutchman was in the lead.

Red Bull appeared to be hoping for a crash and a red flag, which would have allowed him to maintain the lead and switch to a third set of tires for free.

Although the new rule was intended to spice up the race, it only served to theoreticalize because teams were huddled around waiting for unexpected events that would require quick judgment.

There was not a safety car that caused a strategy scramble, though Alpine’s Pierre Gasly crashed into Yuki Tsunoda’s Red Bull early on and broke his suspension, and Fernando Alonso retired his Aston Martin with an engine failure.

Hamilton was the only one to jump ahead of Alonso at the first pit stops while managing his engine issue before retiring.

Alonso, who is still on zero points, has had his worst season ever, coming in at no. 3 on McLaren-Honda’s disastrous 2015.

Isack Hadjar, a Racing Bulls’ Isack Hadjar, made two pit stops just before the start of the race to end up on hard tyres and run the finish line behind Hamilton.

Esteban Ocon, a Haas driver, placed seventh, ahead of Alex Albon and Carlos Sainz’s Williams and second Racing Bull, Liam Lawson, and Carlos Sainz, a Williams driver.

George Russell was irritated by Albon’s maneuvering of the race to allow him and Sainz to pit and both earn points.

Russell eventually cut the chicane to take the position and refused to return it, saying he would “take the penalty.” He complained that Albon was driving erratically.