Official F1 Journal Formula 1 Sunday Round Up - Monaco

26/5/2024

An emotional Charles Leclerc achieves his childhood dream of winning the Monaco Grand Prix. Oscar Piastri holds off Carlos Sainz for second place in a race that started off with a huge crash between Perez, Magnussen, and Hulkenberg in lap one, bringing out the red flag.

Ocon also didn't make it past the first lap after hitting his teammate and receiving a five-place grid penalty for Canada.

Race Facts

Charles Leclerc wins the Monaco Grand Prix
Perez, Magnussen and Hulkenberg crash on lap 1 with Gasly and Ocon also coming together on the first lap
Ocon was also out of the race and received a 10 second penalty for causing the incident which will be converted into a five-place grid drop for Canada
Pierre Gasly scores his first point of the season
Alex Albon scores his a Williams first points of the season

Charles Leclerc started on pole for the third time at the Monaco Grand Prix. He manages to stay ahead of Oscar into turn one. Sainz tries to overtake Piastri but receives a puncture in his front left in the process and locks up running off at Casino Square.

Perez, Hulkenberg and Magnussen had a huge crash on the run up the hill during the first lap, but all three drivers exited their cars safely. All of Sergio's car left was the monocoque and all three drivers were out of the race.

Sainz manages to return to the pits and becomes the luckiest man in the race with the red flag saving him.

The two Alpines also collided at Portier, with Ocon going down the inside of Gasly. The left rear met the right front, and Ocon was launched into the air. Ocon picked up damage but managed to get back into the pits. The mechanics tried to work on his car during the red flag, but the damage was too significant and his race was over.

During the red flag, all of the drivers changed tyres, with Leclerc, Piastri, Sainz and Piastri changing from medium tyres to hards and Russell, Verstappen and Hamilton changing from hards to mediums. Behind Tsunoda and Albon also changed from medium to hard.

The race restarted at 15:44 (local time) with a standing start in original order - Leclerc, Piastri, Sainz, Norris, Russell, Verstappen, Hamilton, Tsunoda, Albon, Gasly, Riccardo, Stroll, Alonso, Sargent, Bottas and then Guanyu. The race restarted on lap 3 of 78.

Charles Leclerc started quicker than Oscar Piastri at the race restart, with Sainz staying behind Oscar. Oscar picked up some slight floor damage during the incident with Sainz on lap one but continued to hold position in the race. McLaren replaced the side pod and fixed the floor as much as they could, but they lacked some downforce.

Alonso and Stroll both overtook Riccardo on the restart, with Riccardo moving down to 13th place. Bottas also overtook Sargent on the restart.

Ocon received a 10-second penalty for his collision with Gasly, which took him out of the race. This will be converted into a five-place grid drop for Canada.

During the restart, Norris and Russell were side by side, but Russell gave Norris space and was told to manage his tyres, with Mercedes wanting him to take his medium tyres to the end. Teams were on different strategies, some thinking they could make it a 0-stop race. Hamilton previously expressed his anger with starting on hard tyres and then having to change to medium tyres during the red flag, hoping they would go to the end.

Russell dropped back eight seconds from Norris, trying to preserve his medium tyres to the end, allowing Leclerc to coast at the front with Russell giving him a potential pit stop gap. But Leclerc was under pressure from Piastri with under a one sec gap, with Lando managing his tyres behind, creating a gap from the top three.

Bottas was the first to pit, changing from medium tyres to hard tyres on lap 16. On his new hard tyres, he was four seconds quicker than the lap leaders, gaining the fastest lap of the race so far.

The Williams of Logan Sargent was the only driver to change to another set of the same starting tyre, changing from a hard tyre to another hard tyre during the red flag, meaning he would have to make a stop or gamble for another safety car.

On lap 22, Norris created a pit stop gap on Russell with an 11/12 second gap, with everyone managing their tyres and trying to get to the end.

Leclerc starts going quicker, pulling away from Piastri on lap 23, gaining over a second lead. Alonso, Riccardo, and Sargent have a short battle for grid places 12, 13, and 14 during lap 28. Stroll starts battling with his medium tyre degradation from lap 30, with Alonso backing up to make a gap between him and Stroll from lap 34, allowing Stroll to potentially pit.

Sainz only had one set of new soft tyres to change to, as his medium tyres were damaged in the first race start. From lap 37, it was a waiting game to see who would pit first out of the top four drivers. Norris had a 17-second gap between him and Russell on lap 38, but not quite enough for a free pit stop.

Leclerc was told to slow down at the front on lap 38 to try and stop the McLaren from pitting into the gap he created from Russell. Both of the McLaren and Ferraris were lapping in the 1:18s during lap 42, while overtaking the back markers, Zhou and Bottas.

Stroll was the second car to pit in the race on lap 43. After Alonso held up the rest of the pack, he pitted onto a fresh set of hard tyres and came back out into P11.

Stroll's new tyres didn't last long after he got a puncture in his left rear during lap 50 and lost the tyre in the pit lane, a little earlier and it would have been a completely different outcome and possible VSC. He is forced to change onto a soft tyre, this gave the rest of the teams vital information on the soft tyres.

Hamilton pits and goes back onto the hards he started the race with and Verstappen covers it with a pit stop of his own back onto his original hard tyres on laps 52 and 53. They both come back out into 7th (Verstappen) and 8th (Hamilton). Hamilton and Verstappen both take a fastest lap each on their new tyres on lap 54 and 55. Russell was then under pressure from both Verstappen and Hamilton who then had a big tyre offset. Hamilton putting in laps in the low 1:14s setting a fastest lap on lap 56, around four seconds quicker than the race leaders.

Bottas overtook Sargent on lap 54 moving into 13th place. Stroll also overtook Zhou in the tunnel with his fresher soft tyres, then puts pressure on Sargent with another overtake moving Stroll into 14th on lap 59, with Sargent in 15th and Zhou in 16th. Sargent is the latest car to pit on lap 59 with a 2.6sec stop onto medium tyres.

Verstappen gained rapidly on Russell making up an over a ten second gap in just eight laps, gaining over two seconds a lap. By the end of lap 62 Verstappen was pushing Russell down the track with better traction. Hamilton continued to set fastest laps trying to gain on Verstappen from seven seconds to three seconds on lap 65.

Norris was within DRS of Sainz during lap 66 gaining and waiting for Sainz to make a mistake. By lap 66 both Mercedes and RB's are told they had saved their tyres enough and could push to the end.

Sargent and Zhou both brush the wall but continue in the race on lap 68 while Verstappen is told to cool his breaks still behind Russell in 6th place. Sargent takes advantage of in front passing and overtakes Zhou on lap 70 for 15th place, both are still two laps behind Leclerc the race leader.

Leclerc pulled five seconds clear of Piastri on lap 71, with Ferrari using Sainz to keep Norris within a pit stop of Russell and Verstappen behind them. Sainz put pressure on Piastri on lap 72 closing the gap to 0.5 seconds.

In the last four laps Leclerc gained nine seconds over Piastri, who is under pressure from Sainz 0.7 seconds behind and Norris 0.6 seconds behind him in 3rd and 4th place.

Charles Leclerc had a nine second lead into the final lap to win the Monaco Grand Prix, with Piastri managing to just about hold off Sainz and Norris to finish 2nd with Sainz finishing 3rd and Norris 4th followed by Russell, Verstappen, Hamilton, Tsunoda, Albon and Gasly finishing tenth with his first point of the season.

Results

1) Charles Leclerc 1:18.636
2) Oscar Piastri + 7.152
3) Carlos Sainz + 7.585
4) Lando Norris + 8.650
5) George Russell + 13.309
6) Max Verstappen + 13.853
7) Lewis Hamilton + 14.908
8) Yuki Tsunoda + 1 Lap
9) Alex Albon + 1 Lap
10) Pierre Gasly + 1 Lap
11) Fernando Alonso + 1 Lap
12) Daniel Riccardo + 2 Laps
13) Valtteri Bottas + 2 Laps
14) Lance Stroll + 2 Laps
15) Logan Sargent + 2 Laps
16) Zhou Guanyu + 2 Laps
DNF Estaban Ocon
DNF Sergio Perez
DNF Nico Hulkenberg
DNF Kevin Magnussen

Charles Leclerc finally earned his first podium at his home race in Monaco, he said after the race: "No words can explain. It’s such a difficult race, I think the fact that twice I’ve started on pole position and we couldn’t quite make it makes it even better in a way, it means a lot obviously.

“It is a race that made me dream of becoming a Formula 1 driver one day. It was a difficult race emotional because already 15 laps to the end you are just hoping nothing happens, already the emotions were coming.

"I was thinking of my dad a lot more than I thought while driving, obviously he’s given everything for me to be here.

“It was a dream of ours and for me to race here and to win and so it's unbelievable."

Anny Wooldridge
Writer @ F1 Journal

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