Introduction
Charles Leclerc has finally won the 2024 Formula 1 Monaco Grand Prix. He enjoyed a mostly serene drive to P1 in front of his home fans despite early drama at the start.
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The red flags were thrown before the first lap of the iconic event had even been completed after a huge collision between Sergio Perez’s Red Bull and the two Haas cars of Kevin Magnussen and Nico Hulkenberg, putting all three out of the running.
Leclerc led away cleanly when proceedings were restarted – minus Esteban Ocon, who was forced to retire following heavy contact with Alpine teammate Pierre Gasly on Lap 1 – as a race of strategy played out, with all eyes on whether the leading cars would pit or make it to the end of the event.
But throughout it all, the Ferrari driver kept a cool head and remained ahead of his rivals to take his first win on the streets of Monte Carlo, beating his previous best result of P4.
Leclerc crossed the line seven seconds ahead of Oscar Piastri, who put in an assured drive in the McLaren and held off a late challenge from Carlos Sainz, with the Spaniard making it a double Ferrari podium in third. Sainz likewise was being chased down by Lando Norris throughout much of the latter stages, the second McLaren ending the day in fourth.
George Russell – running an upgraded front wing this weekend – was the lead Mercedes in fifth, having held off a charging Max Verstappen in what has been a challenging few days for Red Bull. Lewis Hamilton followed in seventh to add to the Silver Arrows’ points tally.
Yuki Tsunoda had another solid day, finishing eighth in the RB, while Alex Albon and Pierre Gasly both scored their first points of the year for Williams and Alpine, finishing ninth and 10th, respectively.
Fernando Alonso recovered somewhat following a difficult day on Saturday but just missed out on points, having finished in P11 for Aston Martin, ahead of Daniel Ricciardo in P12 for RB and Valtteri Bottas as the lead Kick Sauber in P13.
There was disappointment for Lance Stroll, who ended the event in P14 for Aston Martin after suffering a puncture following a pit stop in the second half of the race, while Williams’ Logan Sargeant followed in P15.
Zhou Guanyu became the last classified driver for Kick Sauber, finishing 16th. Four cars did not make it beyond the first lap.
The aforementioned Ocon retired following his collision with Gasly, which has also earned him a five-place grid drop for the next race in Canada.
Perez, Magnussen and Hulkenberg joined him as the other retirees following their dramatic crash on the opening lap of the event.
Mario Isola, Motorsport Director, Pirelli:
First and foremost, congratulations to Charles Leclerc and Scuderia Ferrari on their win. We can only begin to imagine what it means to Charles to have triumphed on the streets of the city where he grew up!
On the tyre front, the Monaco race doesn’t usually present many options, and today, even those few possibilities were practically wiped out by the red flag on the opening lap. As explained previously, the race being stopped meant that a pit stop was no longer required. We knew that both the Hard and the Medium could go the total distance if appropriately managed, and that’s what almost all the drivers did. Groups were formed according to what compound they were running. Within these groups, some cat-and-mouse games were aimed at getting other drivers to make mistakes, but this never really created any overtaking opportunities or chances to change strategies to mix things up. Those who did pit did so “for free,” in other words, without losing track of position. They could then push ahead with a clear track for a little while, lapping as much as whole seconds quicker than those managing their tyres. But then, once back in traffic, they had to settle for having a close view of the car in front. This explains why the top ten places never changed from the first to the last lap.
The day on the track:
For a start, the drivers were split almost equally between the nine who had opted to run the first stint on the Medium, namely Leclerc, Sainz, Norris, Piastri, Albon, Ricciardo, Tsunoda, Zhou and Hulkenberg and the remaining eleven who went with the Hard, those being Perez, Verstappen, Russell, Hamilton, Stroll, Alonso, Ocon, Gasly, Sargeant, Bottas and Magnussen. However, the red flag on the opening lap following a collision between Perez and Haas drivers meant that all remaining drivers were absolved of the need to make a pit stop to use two different compounds. Ocon was also unable to take the restart after colliding with his team-mate. This meant that those who had started on the C3 switched to the C4 and vice versa, and all of them could get to the chequered flag without stopping.
The only exception was Sargeant, who kept the same set of Hards that he had used for the first start. There were some pit stops, but these only occurred when windows opened in the traffic so they could be completed without losing track position. Those who took advantage of this scenario were, in order, Bottas, Stroll, Hamilton, Verstappen and Sargeant, who went from Medium to Hard and Zhou, who switched from Hard to Soft. The only driver to make two stops was Aston Martin’s Lance Stroll, but only because he sustained a puncture after hitting the barrier.
What’s next?
After two races in Europe, Formula 1 crosses the Pond once more for the Canadian Grand Prix in Montreal, in the province of Quebec, from 7 to 9 June. It’s been a historic fixture on the Formula 1 calendar since 1967.
Before heading for Canada, Pirelli has two days of testing planned this coming Tuesday and Wednesday at Le Castellet’s Paul Ricard circuit in France. This time, Scuderia Ferrari is the team involved, with race drivers Charles Leclerc and Carlos Sainz sharing driving duties. New compounds and construction for both slick and wet weather tyres will be tested.
2024 Formula 1 Monaco Grand Prix Race Results
| Pos | No | Driver | Country | Team | Time | Points | Overall |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1. | 16 | Charles Leclerc | Monaco | Scuderia Ferrari | 2:23:15.554 | 25 | 138 |
| 2. | 81 | Oscar Piastri | Australia | McLaren Racing | +7.152s | 18 | 71 |
| 3. | 55 | Carlos Sainz | Spain | Scuderia Ferrari | +7.585s | 15 | 108 |
| 4. | 4 | Lando Norris | Great Britain | Mclaren Racing | +8.650s | 12 | 113 |
| 5. | 63 | George Russell | Great Britain | Mercedes-AMG Petronas | +13.309s | 10 | 54 |
| 6. | 1 | Max Verstappen | Netherlands | Red Bull Racing | +13.853s | 8 | 169 |
| 7. | 44 | Lewis Hamilton | Great Britain | Mercedes-AMG Petronas | +14.908s | 7 | 42 |
| 8. | 22 | Yuki Tsunoda | Japan | Visa Cash App F1 Team | +1 lap | 4 | 19 |
| 9. | 45 | Alexander Albon | Thailand | Williams Racing | +1 lap | 2 | 2 |
| 10. | 10 | Pierre Gasly | France | Alpine F1 Team | +1 lap | 1 | 1 |
| 11. | 14 | Fernando Alonso | Spain | Aston Martin F1 Team | +2 laps | 0 | 33 |
| 12. | 3 | Daniel Ricciardo | Australia | Visa Cash App F1 Team | +2 laps | 0 | 5 |
| 13. | 77 | Valtteri Bottas | Finland | Kick Sauber F1 Team | +2 laps | 0 | 0 |
| 14. | 18 | Lance Stroll | Canada | Aston Martin F1 Team | +2 laps | 0 | 11 |
| 15. | 2 | Logan Sargeant | USA | Williams Racing | +2 laps | 0 | 0 |
| 16. | 24 | Zhou Guanyu | China | Kick Sauber F1 Team | +2 laps | 0 | 0 |
| 17. | 31 | Esteban Ocon | France | Alpine F1 Team | DNF | 0 | 1 |
| 8. | 11 | Sergio Perez | Mexico | Red Bull Racing | DNF | 0 | 107 |
| 11. | 27 | Nico Hulkenberg | Germany | Haas F1 Team | DNF | 0 | 6 |
| 12. | 20 | Kevin Magnussen | Denmark | Haas F1 Team | DNF | 0 | 1 |
2024 Constructor Standings
| Pos | Team | Points |
|---|---|---|
| 1. | Red Bull Racing | 276 |
| 2. | Scuderia Ferrari | 252 |
| 3. | McLaren Racing | 184 |
| 4. | Mercedes-AMG Petronas | 96 |
| 5. | Aston Martin F1 Team | 44 |
| 6. | Visa Cash App F1 Team | 24 |
| 7. | Haas F1 Team | 7 |
| 8. | Alpine F1 Team | 2 |
| 9. | Williams Racing | 2 |
| 10. | Kick Sauber F1 Team | 0 |
Here are the team-by-team highlights:
