McLaren
Norris started on pole, but he had a hairy first lap out there after a big lock up into Sainte Devote. He was lucky to emerge in the lead but from there the race progressed well. That was until Verstappen – who had yet to pit – backed him up into a chasing Leclerc behind. That meant a fair few laps under huge pressure, until Piastri caught up to pincer the Ferrari between the two papaya cars. Once Verstappen pitted, Norris pulled out a huge gap on the one lap he had to win in style for a first victory in the Principality, his team mate coming home a decent third as the Championship gap closed up once again.
READ MORE: ‘I achieved one of my dreams’ – Proud Norris basks in ‘amazing’ maiden Monaco GP victory
Lando Norris, 1st
“This feels amazing. I’ve achieved one of my dreams – because winning here is what I dreamt of as a kid, so I’m proud of myself and the team for being able to get the win here. It's a long race but it was good fun because we could push for quite a lot of it. The end of the race was a little challenging with Charles close behind and Max ahead, but I felt under control, able to push when I needed to and chill when I didn’t... I'm very happy, the team are very happy, and we carry good momentum with us into the final race of the triple header."
Oscar Piastri, 3rd
“I’m happy with that overall. More points on the board and another trip to the podium in Monaco. Well done to Lando on the win. It’s been a tricky weekend for me – I got close yesterday but not quite close enough, so there are a few things to work on for next year – but if this is a tricky weekend then it’s really not going too badly at all!”
Andrea Stella, Team Principal
“A fantastic day in Monaco, as we secure the team’s first victory in the Principality since 2008. Lando put in an impressive performance on the way to an important win. Monaco is never an easy circuit to win at, and his ability to control the race helped secure this win today. On Oscar’s side, we would have loved to have scored a 1-2, but passing Charles would have been very difficult, as is often the case in Monaco. The mandatory three tyre rule posed some very interesting challenges coming into today’s race, and I'm proud of how we executed the Grand Prix. My thanks as always go to the whole race team, specifically the strategy team and pit crew who withstood huge pressure to deliver a great result, and of course all the men and women at McLaren who contributed to this historic victory today.”
Ferrari
Leclerc was lucky to avoid Norris into the first corner, when his rival locked up and only just made the turn. From there, the Ferrari man ran second and harried his rival all the way to the flag. But even though he was a few tenths behind at stages, he could not find a way past. As for Hamilton, he managed to jump two cars in the first round of pit stops but from there had a very lonely race as he came home fifth.
Charles Leclerc, 2nd
"It's a shame we couldn't take the win today, but we gave it everything. At end of the day, we lost the victory yesterday and Lando (Norris) just did a better job and he deserves this win. On the upside, P2 exceeds the expectations we had going into this weekend so overall it's a good finish.
"As Ferrari, we are lucky to have great support all around the world, but being from here and seeing all the Monegasque people behind me really warms my heart. I realised my childhood dream last year by winning here, unfortunately it didn't work out today but I hope we will be on the top step again next year."
Lewis Hamilton, 5th
"I knew starting in P7 was going to be a challenge today, but it's good to see our progress overall. Once I found some clear air, I was able to make up a bit of ground, although we lost quite a bit of time in traffic and the balance wasn’t quite where we wanted it.
"Still, we came away with a podium for Charles, as well as some solid points for the team and it’s encouraging we’re heading in the right direction. We made a step forward in qualifying, which was a key focus, so a big thanks to everyone for the hard work in getting the car into a more competitive place across the whole weekend. We’ll keep pushing and look to build on this in Barcelona."
Fred Vasseur, Team Principal
"Overall, we can be pleased with this result because today we got the most we could from the race, especially considering how difficult it is to overtake here.
"With Lewis’ penalty we effectively had just one car to take the fight to the two McLarens, which put us slightly on the back foot. However, Charles did a very good job managing that situation and putting constant pressure on Lando (Norris), while Lewis showed strong pace, getting back up to P5 until he got caught in traffic.
"In recent races we’ve made a step forward in high-speed corners, and this weekend we’ve also seen progress at low speed, which is encouraging. We need to keep working and focusing on ourselves in order to continue in this vein."
Red Bull
Red Bull started Tsunoda on the soft tyre and pitted him early, hoping for a strategic piece of magic. But with no Safety Car in the race, he was stuck behind a queue of slow moving cars and came home down the order. He did well to make the flag, after picking up damage when Gasly hit the rear of his RB21 early on. The team did score with Verstappen though, who was involved right at the front of the field. He ran fourth, led at times whilst Norris and Leclerc pitted, but even late on knew his second stop would drop him back to P4. Instead he opted to back Norris up into Leclerc in the hopes of engineering something, but alas they kept their racing clean and P4 was as good as it got.
Max Verstappen, 4th
“It wasn’t the most exciting race for me today. At the end we stayed out waiting as I had a huge gap behind me, so was free to do what we wanted with our final pit stop. We had nothing to lose; the tyres were quite old and we couldn’t push so much but we had a big gap behind. We just kept at it to see if we got lucky with the safety car or a red flag. We did everything right and there wasn’t much more we could have done to change the result. Overall, the two stop format didn’t change much for me, it is a lottery about what is going to happen in the race as it is impossible to overtake here. You don’t push the car to the limit as you can’t pass the car, so we didn’t learn too much from the car today. It was not the most exciting race and I felt pretty neutral. This is not our track, it’s as simple as that and it is just not made for our car. In Barcelona we should be able to race more, so we will see what happens in the final race of the triple header."
Yuki Tsunoda, 17th
“It has been a frustrating weekend for me overall but there was nothing I could do much differently today, it’s down to me to be qualifying better. For sure I didn’t help myself yesterday and I didn’t help my Team. If you Qualify that far behind, you can’t expect much to happen in your race here and you have created that situation. Not much happened in my race apart from Pierre crashing into me. I was stuck in a lot of traffic and it felt like the longest race ever. Monaco is not fun when you are just sitting or driving by yourself, you can’t create your rhythm when you are stuck behind people. I don’t feel like Monaco was too affected by the limitations to my car from Imola, the pace was alright and it felt good in FP3 and in Qualifying during Q1, I just wasn’t able to put it together overall. Hopefully next weekend I can put it all together and I need to do better overall."
Christian Horner, Team Principal
"We rolled the dice today. It didn’t work and our best chance was a safety car or a red flag or VSC as you’re never going to overtake on track here. We went long with Max and he led a lot of the laps today but ultimately had to take that final stop. For Yuki we did the inverse, and pitted him on lap one, initially it looked like he would get significant benefit from it but then everyone started to drive extremely slowly, as they started playing around with their tactics. He was basically on the same set of tyres for the whole race and did his fastest laps at the end there when he finally got some clear air but it was done by then; an extremely difficult for him today. So, damage limitation today. We have only given away three points to Oscar, the Championship leader and we go into Barcelona within a race win and that was the target to hit this regulation change."
Racing Bulls
Hadjar recorded his best result of the season with a very assured drive in the Principality. He managed to push enough in the first stint to pit and hold onto sixth, only losing out to Hamilton. But the team played the tactics perfectly, putting him on softs for some blistering laps as Lawson backed up the pack behind. That enabled Hadjar to pit again, but it looked to have sacrificed Lawson’s race somewhat. Luckily, with Williams behind doing similar, Lawson was able to also hold onto a points paying position to score for the first time this year.
FACTS AND STATS: Racing Bulls’ Hadjar and Lawson both secure career-best results
Isack Hadjar, 6th
"It was a perfect Sunday for us. I’m really happy, and honestly, there was nothing more I could have done today in the race, so I consider it kind of a small victory. We had a plan and we executed it perfectly. I’m really proud of what we achieved today as a team, with Liam also bringing home a P8 and helping me out there. It was a big team effort, and a double-points finish is a nice reward for all of us. I found it quite interesting having to do two stops; there was much more to think about before the race, and we made it work today with our strategy. Since last week in Imola, we picked up some pace and made a step forward, something that we were able to carry on to Monaco. I’m confident and I’m looking forward to going back racing in Barcelona in a few days.”
Liam Lawson, 8th
“It was a great result for the team, and it’s always nice to come away with points, which isn’t the easiest around Monaco. Having both cars finish in the points was exactly what we needed. Everything came together nicely this weekend, and we executed the race perfectly. The strategy made sense for us today, with both cars qualifying well and showing strong pace throughout the weekend. The two-stop format didn’t make a huge difference for us, it can create more opportunities but today’s race played out fairly straight forwardly. The pace has been there for a few races now, so it was good to show it this weekend. Looking ahead to Barcelona, we’ll aim to keep the momentum going. It’s a very different kind of track, and we will need to get on top of the regulation changes, we will need to adapt as quickly as possible."zZ
Laurent Mekies, Team Principal
“What a brilliant result! It’s hugely rewarding to get both cars into the points at one of the toughest races of the year. Our performance this weekend has been incredibly encouraging. Monaco is one of the most difficult races to manage from every aspect and everyone at the track, with vital support from those back in the factory, was on top of their game. Isack and Liam did not look like they were racing here for the first time in an F1 car and they have been incredible all weekend. Nothing came easily, and everyone had a very intense weekend to improve the car throughout the sessions. Ultimately it allowed us to put both our cars in Q3 yesterday. On a track where the driver really makes the difference, Isack and Liam deserve most of the credit for this result, and with the help of a great race strategy and teamwork from Liam, we got 12 more precious points. Our car is improving and now we go to Barcelona determined to keep fighting at the front of the midfield.”
Haas
Haas pitted Bearman on the first lap from the back of the field, but a slow stop did not help the youngster. They also pitted Ocon relatively early, and were sharp to the shenanigans going on around them in the top 10. With Lawson holding up the pack for Hadjar, Haas took advantage to pit Ocon a second time, ensuring he scored good points in Monaco. Bearman came close to scoring too, making up eight places but unable to recover from being held up in the train for much of the race.
Esteban Ocon, 7th
“I think it’s been a great weekend all around from qualifying to the race – we put everything together when it mattered. It’s six points for the team which is a big thing, so it’s very satisfying. We made a lot of progress, all the way up to qualifying, and we need to take that into account and really investigate how we can get more consistency going forward. Barcelona is a very different circuit, with a lot more downforce bias, and more engine bias – so we’ll see what we can get there next weekend.”
Oliver Bearman, 12th
“Congratulations first of all to Esteban, I’m really happy the team scored some points today, it’s a really nice feeling after a difficult weekend on my side of the garage. I think we did the maximum we could today as there were no points on the table with the way that the race panned out. The car was fantastic though, especially on Saturday, it was a good strategy today but with a 10-place grid penalty there were no points on offer today.”
Ayao Komatsu, Team Principal
“It's great for the team to get P7 with Esteban. Of course, there were so many scenarios in this race – so starting P8 and finishing P7 was a really good result. With Ollie starting from P20 we had to try something different, and we didn’t quite get it right in terms of execution, but we tried everything. There were cars in front playing certain games so he couldn’t make progress, but at some point, if it wasn’t for the extreme gamesmanship, he would’ve had the chance to get up to P10. I think that’s the best we could’ve done, but Ollie did have the pace this weekend, so he’s learned a lot and it puts him in good stead for next year. The good thing was that the car was quick and drivers had pace, so the next race in Barcelona, it’s a high-downforce circuit with a couple of high-speed corners, I think we’re looking forward to it.”
Williams
Williams were not the first team to opt to back up the field – but having seen Racing Bulls do it to such good effect, they decided to do likewise. First Sainz backed the pack up to allow Albon two free stops, and then they swapped their drivers and did the same again. It worked a treat for the team who managed to get both cars into the points – albeit in the lower positions.
Alex Albon, 9th
"Today isn’t how either Carlos or I want to go racing; it’s not pretty but, in the end, it was a tactical game, and we had to make it work. The Racing Bulls did it first, and we knew if they started it, we had to match it. Realistically we lost the race on Saturday, and you pay the price here; you start where you finish and that was it. The weekend was a bit disappointing as it feels like we didn’t maximise what we could have, but we’ve still come away with three good points for the team and we’ll just keep chipping away at it."
Carlos Sainz, 10th
"Today is not how we want to go racing and I think the way us and other teams were able to hold up the pace and build gaps shouldn’t be what the Monaco Grand Prix is all about. We worked well as a team, but I understand the frustrations of the cars around us as we were victims ourselves. Looking at the positives, it’s another double points finish at a weekend that we struggled more than expected in Qualifying. We now head to Barcelona for the final round of the triple-header, so I’m really looking forward to racing in front of my home crowd and hope to share with them a good weekend!"
James Vowles, Team Principal
"It’s great to walk away with points with both drivers and brilliant to watch Alex and Carlos execute really strong teamwork to achieve that. We need to review the rules and regulations for Monaco, because racing like this feels wrong and I want us to be racing on performance and merit, and we’re not quite there yet. Looking ahead to Barcelona, let’s keep this run going. That’s three races in a row with double points and there’s lots of opportunity ahead of us."
Mercedes
The Monaco Grand Prix was one to forget for Mercedes. They started both cars on the hard tyre, in the hopes of some late Safety Cars to gain a cheap pit stop. Antonelli struggled on that compound, fighting with Bortoleto on the opening lap. But once that settled, they found themselves in a queue backed up first by Lawson, and then by Sainz, and then by Albon. With cars disappearing up the road and two stops still to make, Russell opted to run over the chicane and overtake the Williams, earning himself a drive through penalty for that misdemeanour. But as he was no longer held up, he served his penalty and pitted twice and still finished ahead of his team mate – who also held up the field, and paid the price by pitting late to drop to last.
George Russell, 11th
"It really felt like we were playing chess today on track with this new mandatory two stop regulation. The strategy was for Kimi and I to help each other out and gain positions throughout the race. Unfortunately, Williams and Racing Bulls opted for the same strategy, and it left us without any real options. We still tried to play the long game, hoping for a Safety Car or red flag, but nothing fell our way.
"With this regulation, it was easy for teams to work together, inverting cars and giving free stops possibilities. Driving four seconds off the pace and not being overtaken is easy here in Monaco so the calculation to do that is easy to make. On the bright side, I really enjoyed my last 10 laps. Monaco is one of the best circuits in the world and I had the chance to push to the limit and enjoy the most of it in those closing stages."
Kimi Antonelli, 18th
"I am disappointed with today’s result but that was ultimately not a surprise having qualified P15 yesterday. It was not the most exciting race we’ve ever done, and the strategy didn’t work out in our favour.
"I tried to be aggressive in the beginning of the race, to gain as many positions as possible. I made a move on Bortoleto before the tunnel; I had the pace and went for it and was able to move up one place. After that, we tried to play the long game but other midfield teams like Racing Bulls and Williams were running their own race and we found ourselves in a train, way off the pace, with no possibilities to overtake.
"Despite the disappointing result, Monaco has been another good learning weekend for me. I struggled a lot on the C6 tyre compound, just like in Imola, and struggled to get the single laps in. I am happy to head to Barcelona now where we will be on the harder tyre compounds that I know well."
Toto Wolff, Head of Mercedes-Benz Motorsport
"Today was just not our day. Starting P14 and P15 was going to be a challenge, and we knew about this from the start. There were no scenarios that could have brought us some points and hoping for a red flag or a Safety Car was the only option available to us. Saturday's Qualifying penalized us for today's race, and that's usually the case in Monaco when you start further back in the field.
"It was a frustrating race for our team, and I am sure many fans didn’t enjoy the spectacle. As a sport, we will look at the mandatory two stop regulation and see how we can avoid these situations in future. Monaco is still one of those incredible events though and an unbelievable spectacle. It is an entertaining weekend, but it is no surprise that Saturday is almost more important than race day itself. We must make sure to not lose the magic of Monaco, whilst creating the best racing we can around these narrow streets."
Andrew Shovlin, Trackside Engineering Director
"Today is a big disappointment for the team. However, starting so far down the grid, we did not expect any other outcome from this race. Our strategy here was relying on potential red flags and incidents which, in the end, never occurred.
"From Free Practice to Qualifying, we struggled with the car balance, the tyres and it made difficult for the drivers to build their confidence and to find the pace for better timed laps on Saturday. We were not good enough yesterday and that really sealed the fate of our weekend. All we can do is dust ourselves down and come back stronger next weekend. We leave Monaco with a lot of things to work on and many improvements to make. We will be working flat out in the next few days to offer a better level of performance in Barcelona and get back to fighting for the podium."
Alpine
Gasly was the first car to retire, after he braked late, skidding into the back of Tsunoda’s Red Bull coming into the Nouvelle Chicane. With a broken front wing, suspension and wheel, he just about limped back to the pits to retire – but was investigated afterwards. The stewards opted to hand him a reprimand. Colapinto was hampered by being behind the Racing Bulls – Williams – Mercedes queue for much of the race, and therefore couldn’t move forward.
WATCH: Gasly forced to retire from Monaco Grand Prix after collision with Tsunoda
Pierre Gasly, DNF
“It is never good to end a race so early. Obviously, a very frustrating outcome for the team in the end, although, having seen how the race panned out, opportunities were very limited from starting far back on the grid. On the incident, I did not expect Yuki [Tsunoda] to move so much under braking. He made a mistake before the tunnel and then he started to brake on the left side of the track and then moved to the right so I was basically cornered with nowhere to go. We had pitted on the first lap and maybe that would have brought some opportunities later in the race. It appears most cars finished where they started other than retirements and penalties. We have to move forwards to Spain and aim to improve our level of performance.”
Franco Colapinto, 13th
“Starting from eighteenth place today, it was a hard ask to enter the points especially in a race with such little action. I would say finishing in thirteenth was the maximum we could really do with all the traffic and different tactics from other teams on track. With Pierre’s incident, we switched to do an earlier stop. From there, it was just a tough race to round off a difficult weekend here in Monaco. We struggled with low-speed balance and we just could not make the car work as we wanted here. We will continue our hard work ahead of the next Grand Prix in Spain at a more conventional track.”
Flavio Briatore, Executive Advisor
“It was always going to be an uphill task given our starting positions. With Pierre, we wanted to try something different by pitting early and seeing what opportunities might come to us. Then he had an incident with Tsunoda and that was the end of Pierre's race. As we saw, other teams played games with some interesting takes on strategy. Franco did a good job, made no mistakes had good pace with what he could do in traffic and I am sure many learnings for him and a boost in confidence. Fundamentally, we are not fast enough. We will see in Spain at a more complete track with some intrigue around new wings. We will see how we fare.”
Kick Sauber
Bortoleto was the first to find the barriers in the race, after overtaking Antonelli on the opening lap. The teenager dived back down the inside, with Bortoleto running straight on into the barriers at the entrance to the tunnel after refusing to bail out of his defence. An early pit stop actually aided his race, as he was able to close back up under the Virtual Safety Car and despite stopping three times instead of two, finished ahead of his team mate in the end.
Nico Hulkenberg, 16th
“I had a good start, gaining a position on the opening lap, but the rest of the race didn't unfold as we had hoped. Unfortunately, I frequently found myself caught in traffic, largely due to teams in front of us obviously executing strategic plays. Lapping three to five seconds per lap off the pace to open up pit windows for their teammates slowed me down massively and did not lead to an enjoyable race. Obviously, team plays are part of the sport, but from a racing standpoint, it was not what everyone was hoping for. Realistically, starting in the top 10 is probably the only way to avoid this, and while our own strategy and the pitstops were well executed, there was little we could do to achieve a better result.“
Gabriel Bortoleto, 14th
"Monaco has always been known for exciting qualifying and free practice sessions, but the races often end up being quite uneventful because overtaking is so difficult. Today wasn't any different, despite the sport trying something new with the tyre regulations; it didn’t really work out, and the team games that emerged made the race slow, with everyone running four or five seconds off their real pace, no tyre degradation, and overtaking impossible. My race was already in a difficult position after lap one, due to my incident with Kimi. It’s a shame because I made a solid move around the outside at the hairpin, gaining the position fairly, but then he tried a slightly optimistic move at Turn 8. He went a bit wide, and to avoid a collision with him, I ended up crashing into the wall, destroying my front wing and ultimately compromising my race. It’s frustrating because I felt that, without the incident, we could have been in a position to try playing the team game as well and maybe make some gains. Looking forward, we’ll continue working hard on the car and its set-up and, hopefully, it will help us improve our qualifying and race positions. Being consistently in Q2 or occasionally fighting for Q3 would allow us to be closer to the fight for the points."
Jonathan Wheatley, Team Principal
"The Monaco Grand Prix was defined by strategy and shaped more by the rules than by pure racing. On the opening lap, Gabriel pulled off a bold move around the outside at turn six to gain a position, but a late move from Kimi [Antonelli] at turn eight led to contact — I’d call it a racing incident. As a result, Gabriel came in for a nose and tyre change; we later switched to the softs on lap 35 when Carlos [Sainz] bunched up the field.
"With Nico, we boxed for the hard compound on lap 12 when Liam [Lawson] backed up the pack, and again for softs on lap 44 when Alex [Albon] did the same. On a circuit where overtaking is notoriously difficult, this was a race where strategy ultimately dictated the outcome — and some teams were in a position to make the most of how the adapted sporting regulations work. It was one of those days where Racing Bulls, Williams, and Mercedes were clearly playing the team game, which definitely made things tougher for us.
“While I’d say the incident between Gabriel and Kimi was just hard racing, as a sport we do need to take a closer look at George’s [Russell] penalty and consider what can be learned — especially in races so heavily influenced by mandatory tyre usage rules like this one. Next up is Barcelona, and hopefully that’ll give us more of a chance to see some proper racing.”
Aston Martin
Alonso started well, and looked on for points. He was running seventh with one pit stop still to make when smoke appeared from the rear of his car, and he was forced into immediate retirement as his hunt for a first points score of the year continued. Stroll pitted relatively early and hung on to his second set of tyres for a long time – but no Safety Car came to give him a cheap second stop, so he wound up down the order.
Fernando Alonso, DNF
"I had a problem with the engine since lap 15 so we were down on power. I thought we might be able to hold on because overtaking is very difficult here, but unfortunately that wasn't the case. We lost another great opportunity to score some good points today. I am happy with my performance this weekend and we move on to the next race for another opportunity to go again."
Lance Stroll, 15th
"It's Monaco, so when you have a tough Saturday, you know Sunday will always be a challenge. It was always going to be tricky starting from the back of the grid and it was not an exciting race with very few opportunities that could help us gain more positions today. We now turn the page and focus on Barcelona in a week's time."
Andy Cowell, Team Principal
"We really feel for Fernando today. A power unit issue appeared just after his pit stop and, despite managing it for a while, we eventually had to park the car. Until then, we had done everything right and had a great opportunity to score a decent amount of points. Lance's race was clean and tidy, but it proved difficult to progress up the field. The mandatory two stops rule didn't really open up many opportunities, although some of our competitors used team tactics to favour one of their cars."
Pirelli
Mario Isola, Motorsport Director
“It’s not easy to give a verdict in the heat of the moment on the race that’s just ended, but I believe it’s fair to say that it was well worth trying something different in such a unique Grand Prix as this one. One has to say that the new regulation introduced for this event certainly got people talking about what might happen in the race, both those inside the sport and also the fans. While it’s true that the first four past the flag finished in grid order, it is also true that there were five changes of leader, with three different drivers involved, while behind them there was plenty of action, certainly more than usual, and more than we saw last year for example.
“Honestly, I think that overall, the spectators at the track and those watching on television, even if they were not majorly entertained, were certainly not bored, which has often been the case in races that haven’t been enlivened by unusual circumstances such as rain or safety cars. In the end, this is Monaco, take it or leave it: qualifying that leaves you with your heart in your mouth and a race where overtaking is almost impossible. Only after a careful analysis of the race, can everyone involved deliver an accurate verdict on this experiment.
“On the tyre front, as expected the Medium and Hard were the most used compounds: both proved capable of being able to cover almost the entire race distance without the need to pit. It’s possible the Medium required a bit more management, but overall, its level of degradation was more than acceptable. This weekend the C6 proved to be a good qualifying tyre, but above all, it played a tactical role, obviously pushing the teams to use the Medium more and, let’s not forget that this tyre was the Soft last year. That was exactly our goal and we await with keen interest to see how it will perform in Montreal, another type of track."
Next Up
Related Articles
.webp)
UnlockedWatch the best moments from the 'F1' movie premiere.webp)
F1 to race in Canada until 2035 with new extension
Driver of the dayAntonelli gets your vote after maiden F1 podium in Montreal
Piastri labels Norris clash in Canada ‘a shame for the team’
Horner praises ‘squeaky clean’ Verstappen after P2 finish in Canada
FIA post-race press conference – Canada