Antonelli romps to first Monaco victory, fifth win in a row as Verstappen DNFs at start; Hamilton hangs on for P2, Hadjar avoids late penalty to keep P3, Russell doesn’t to tumble out of points in incident-filled race
Mercedes’ teenage phenom Kimi Antonelli romped to victory at Sunday’s Monaco Grand Prix, earning his first win at this fabled street circuit and making it an astounding five victories in a row for the young Italian. While his putative championship rivals suffered various race destroying incidents on what was a chaotic, incident-filled day, Antonelli survived a late Red Flag period that wiped out his large time advantage and then a standing restart with nine laps to go, the only known Achilles heel of this year’s Silver Arrow. Antonelli aced it off the line nonetheless, easily keeping Lewis Hamilton’s Ferrari at bay and cruising home to take F1’s most prestigious trophy some 6.27 seconds to the good. On a day that featured seven premature retirements for the Grand Prix, the one that potentially benefitted Antonelli the most came right at the start, when the Red Bull of Max Verstappen, lining up in P2 on the grid and expected to be the main threat to Mercedes after a superb qualifying, suffered a catastrophic power unit failure when he dropped the clutch to make his getaway. As cars streamed by the helpless Dutchman, he managed to get it going on battery power, but the team quickly realized the issue was terminal and brought him in to retire the car. It was mega-frustrating day for Verstappen and his fans in a race where he really had a shot at victory due to Monaco’s unique slow-speed, high downforce characteristics, not to mention Verstappen’s special abilities in demanding environments.
George Russell, Antonelli’s teammate and closest Championship pursuer, also had a disastrous day. After looking less than conformable all weekend within the tight confines of the street circuit, Russell lined up down in P6 at the start at a track where it is extremely difficult to overtake. It got worse for the British contender when he incurred a 5-second penalty for speeding in the pit lane during his first stop for fresh Pirellis on Lap 32. To be fair to Russell, multiple drivers were also dinged for violating the pit lane speed limit, an oddity caused by Monaco’s unique right-left entry and then another left kink upon exit and perhaps also something in the new design of the cars this year that saw drivers illegally shortening the distance to the timing loops. In any event, Russell had that hanging over his head for the next twenty-plus laps as he tried to get up to Isack Hadjar’s Red Bull and the Alpine of Pierre Gasly and perhaps get himself onto the podium. But it all went away on Lap 61, when the team brought both Silver Arrows in under a Safety Car caused by Aston Martin’s Lance Stroll crashing out at the final Antony Noghès corner. While Russell had to wait while race leader Antonelli was serviced, the mechanics were not clear on Russell’s need to mandatorily serve his 5-seconds once he came into the box. Instead, they changed his tires right away, a violation that incurred a harsh drive-through penalty. While Russell tried to salvage something and hung it out until the end, perhaps hoping for a reprieve from the stewards, none was forthcoming and the drive-through plunged him down the order and into a pointless P12. That made it two very difficult zero-point races in a row after his mechanical DNF last time out in Montreal and increased his deficit to Antonelli to a discouraging 68 points, as well as dropping him behind Hamilton and into third by the time all the post-race dust had settled.
Two big beneficiaries of the misfortunes that befell so many were Ferrari’s Lewis Hamilton and Red Bull’s lone surviving entrant, Hadjar. With Verstappen going out on Lap 1 or this 78-lap contest, Hamilton inherited P2. And while it looked a tossup for that final position all race long between the seven time champ and his Monegasque teammate Charle Leclerc, the hometown hero shockingly binned it on a Safety Car restart on Lap 65, spearing off into the barriers at Noghès just as Stroll had done. That heartbreak for the hometown favorite, who blamed his brakes in no uncertain terms, led to a prolonged Red Flag period, as the race director and event organizers surveyed that particular piece of track where the tarmac appeared to be breaking up. It also promoted the P4 Hadjar into P3 and a potential first podium with the big Red Bull team. When the long Red Flag period ended and the race resumed from a standing start on Lap 70, Hamilton had nothing for Antonelli but easily kept Hadjar behind him to claim his second second place in a row. Hadjar, meanwhile, survived an investigation into a possible Red Flag infraction, as well as a dodgy power unit ion his own, and then benefitted from yet another speeding penalty, this time to Alpine’s Pierre Gasly, to earn that last step on the podium in Monaco, a fittingly complicated ending to what was a highly chaotic but entertaining race.
Top 10 finishers of the Monaco GP:
| 1 |
 Kimi Antonelli
|
Mercedes |
2:23:31.243 |
78 |
4 |
1:13.481 (76) |
| 2 |
 Lewis Hamilton
|
Ferrari |
+6.271 |
78 |
5 |
— |
| 3 |
 Isack Hadjar
|
Red Bull |
+23.394 |
78 |
4 |
— |
| 4 |
 Oscar Piastri
|
McLaren |
+24.261 |
78 |
5 |
— |
| 5 |
 Liam Lawson
|
Racing Bulls |
+26.553 |
78 |
4 |
— |
| 6 |
Arvid Lindblad
|
Racing Bulls |
+29.010 |
78 |
4 |
— |
| 7 |
Pierre Gasly
|
Alpine |
+30.369 |
78 |
4 |
— |
| 8 |
 Alexander Albon
|
Williams |
+33.413 |
78 |
5 |
— |
| 9 |
Esteban Ocon
|
Haas |
+37.140 |
78 |
5 |
— |
| 10 |
 Fernando Alonso
|
Aston Martin |
+41.899 |
78 |
6 |
— |
Complete race results available via Formula1.com.
The next race is in but a week’s time, as the teams jet off to Spain for the Grand Prix of Barcelona-Catalunya. With the exception of Antonelli, Hamilton and Hadjar, the majority of the drivers will be happy to have such a brief break to escape the claustrophobic confines of Monaco and start with a clean slate at a purpose built circuit. Antonelli, on the other hand, will just be keen to keep the good times rolling in his pursuit of becoming the first Italian F1 champion since Alberto Ascari back in 1953. hope to see you then to find out how it all shakes out!
