Formula One returned to Europe for the beginning of the European leg of the calendar. First up was FORMULA 1 LOUIS VUITTON GRAND PRIX DE MONACO 2026, around the narrow streets of Monte Carlo. It’s arguably the most prestigious race of the season, but also the race where qualifying matters the most.
The home favourite, Charles Leclerc, had dominated the practice sessions but lost out on pole position. He gave it everything in Q3, tapping the barriers on his final flying lap. He was outqualified by his teammate, having to settle for P4. They were denied the front row by Kimi Antonelli and Max Verstappen.
Verstappen’s best chance to take the lead from Antonelli was at the race start. Verstappen pointed his Red Bull towards Antonelli on the starting grid. The Dutchman had a good reaction time, but his car came to a crawl after the initial getaway. It was fortunate that the entire field was able to dodge the wounded Red Bull. Verstappen limped back to the garage to retire, with the start issue appearing to be a power unit issue, not driver error.
With Verstappen out of the race, Antonelli was free to build a gap out front. By lap ten, he had built a lead of around six seconds over Hamilton, but began to encounter lapped traffic. Hamilton proved to be a little quicker at lapping cars, reducing the gap down to three seconds by the end of lap 19 when all the lapped cars had been passed. But the gap began to build again when Antonelli got the clear air.
The closest battle in the opening half of the race was the battle for P4 between Isack Hadjar and George Russell. A power unit issue hindered Hadjar in the sole remaining Red Bull, which the pit wall could not fix. But Monaco is an extremely difficult circuit to overtake on, leaving Russell trapped behind the Red Bull.
Russell pitted on lap 32, and Hadjar responded the following lap. Russell managed to jump Hadjar, but was caught speeding in the pit lane, earning a five-second penalty. He was only one of five drivers nabbed for speeding, with Hamilton, Franco Colapinto, Pierre Gasly (twice), and Oscar Piastri also getting the same penalty. It was bizarre to see so many drivers penalized for speeding, but it may have been caused by some drivers cutting their line at the pit exit.
After a few laps, Russell had joined the back of a battle between Pierre Gasly and Lando Norris. The duo had been fighting for much of the race, with Gasly having overtaken Norris at the first corner on the opening lap. It had been close between the two McLaren drivers in the first corner, but Norris had to back out on the outside, losing a position to Gasly.
McLaren was keen to use Norris to benefit Piastri’s chances, instructing Norris to back up Russell. He played the team back and backed off from the Alpine. This only lasted a few laps before Norris suffered a mechanical failure and had to limp back to the pit lane to retire.
McLaren was not the only team to play the team game, with Williams also asking Alex Albon to slow the field to prepare for Carlos Sainz’s pit stop. Albon was unhappy to do it, but played his part, eventually being rewarded with the driver swap.
Drama struck late in the race when Lance Stroll brought out the late safety car on lap 60. The Canadian appeared to push too hard in the final corner, running wide into the barrier. This triggered a flurry of pit stops to take the soft tyres for the final stint. This involved a lot of double-stacking, including the two Ferraris, where Leclerc had to wait for Hamilton to serve his five-second penalty.
Interestingly, Russell was the only driver to pit without serving his penalty, seemingly due to a communication breakdown with the mechanics. This landed the team in hot water with the stewards for failing to serve his penalty. He was eventually handed a drive-through penalty.
The race restarted on lap 66, but it was an extremely short-lived green flag as heartbreak struck Leclerc. On the restart, with cold brakes and cold tyres, his Ferrari had absolutely no grip in the final corner. He skated across the marbles into the barriers in an accident that was remarkably similar to Stroll’s. Leclerc was frustrated, immediately blaming the brakes for the incident.
The race was initially neutralized behind the safety car, but was quickly red-flagged to make some track surface repairs and cleanup in the final corner. What appeared to be marbles in the final corner was actually the asphalt breaking up.
Hamilton and Hadjar were both noted by the stewards for leaving more than ten car lengths’ gap under the safety car, but opted not to investigate further.
After a lengthy delay and a couple of laps behind the safety car, the remaining 16 cars lined up on the starting grid for the second time to perform a standing restart.
Antonelli had the start that he needed to maintain the lead over Hamilton, while Hadjar struggled with power in his ailing Red Bull, tumbling down the order. Russell raised eyebrows on the restart, absolutely crawling through the first sector, causing a traffic jam of cars behind. Nico Hulkenberg couldn’t get turned into the hairpin, clipping Sainz, who bounced into the barrier. The Spaniard was spun a couple of corners later by Franco Colapinto, ending Sainz’s day.
Kimi Antonelli went on to win the race, with no real competition from Hamilton, who finished in a comfortable P2. Pierre Gasly finished in P3 on the track, but dropped to P7 after his two five-second penalties for speeding in the pit lane were applied. This promoted Isack Hadjar to P3 for the second time in his career, but he may also lose the position as a red flag violation investigation looms over his head.
Further down the order, the battle for the final points-scoring position will also be decided after the race. Sergio Perez crossed the line in P10, but will likely be penalized for starting too far forward in his starting grid on the restart. He had also received a drive-through penalty at the start of the race for starting out of position. If Perez is penalized, this would give Fernando Alonso his first points of the season.
The racing action will resume next weekend for the Spanish Grand Prix. The race will be held on June 14.
| Pos. | Driver | Laps | Time | Points | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 78 | 2:23:31.243 | 25 |  | |
| 2 | 78 | +6.271 | 18 | ||
| 3 | 78 | +23.394 | 15 | ||
| 4 | 78 | +24.261 | 12 | ||
| 5 | 78 | +26.553 | 10 | ||
| 6 | 78 | +29.010 | 8 | ||
| 7 | 78 | +30.369 | 6 | ||
| 8 | 78 | +33.413 | 4 | ||
| 9 | 78 | +37.140 | 2 | ||
| 10 | 78 | +39.153 | 1 | ||
| 11 | 78 | +41.899 | |||
| 12 | 78 | +42.748 | |||
| 13 | 78 | +43.353 | |||
| 14 | 78 | +44.102 | |||
| 15 | 78 | +48.964 | |||
| DNF | 70 | ||||
| DNF | 64 | ||||
| DNF | 56 | ||||
| DNF | 43 | ||||
| DNF | 27 | ||||
| DNF | 15 | ||||
| DNF | 0 |
| 1 | K. Antonelli | 156 |  | |
| 2 | L. Hamilton | 90 | -66 |  |
| 3 | G. Russell | 88 | -68 |  |
| 4 | C. Leclerc | 75 | -81 | |
| 5 | O. Piastri | 60 | -96 | |
| 1 | Mercedes | 244 | | |
| 2 | Ferrari | 165 | -79 | |
| 3 | McLaren | 118 | -126 | |
| 4 | Red Bull | 72 | -172 | |
| 5 | Alpine | 41 | -203 | |
