Formula 1 Monaco Grand Prix - Circuit De Monaco 2025
STARTING GRID:
1) NORRIS 2) LECLERC 3) PIASTRI 4) HAMILTON 5) HADJAR 6) ALONSO 7) HAMILTON 8) OCON 9) LAWSON 10) ALBON 11) SAINZ 12) TSUNODA 13) HULKENBERG 14) RUSSELL 15) ANTONELLI 16) BORTOLETO 17) GASLY 18) COLAPINTO 19) STROLL 20) BEARMAN
LAP 1: Into the first corner, a big lock up for Lando Norris as he tried his best to keep the lead of the race ahead of Charles Leclerc. He maintained his place but the pressure continued throughout the lap from the home hero with the crowd willing him on.
Meanwhile, round the outside of turn 6 Gabriel Bortoleto moved past Kimi Antonelli in a great move. However, Antonelli looked to get the place back on the next corner as he went up the inside of turn 7. As Bortoleto was getting squeezed he found himself head on into the barrier. He managed to get the car out of the barrier and going again but ended up at the back of the pack.
LAP 9: Yellow flags waved as a driver was going slowly in Pierre Gasly. The cameras panned to him and showed the front left of his car was completely snapped, which turned out to be the end of his race not even 10 laps in.
The replays showed that as he came out of the tunnel behind Yuki Tsunoda he went over the back of the Red Bull’s right rear tyre. This damaged the front left wheel and front suspension of the car. As he was unable to stop he nearly collided with his teammate Franco Colapinto who luckily saw him coming and moved out of the way just in time.
Gasly was able to keep the car going and managed to get his Alpine back to the pits which helped to avoid a possible Safety Car due to the narrow race track.
LAP 15: The different strategies of all of the different teams for this mandatory 2-stop race starts to be shown with some teams opting to pit early. One of these teams was Racing Bulls as they pitted Hadjar whilst Lawson tried his best to hold up the drivers behind him for his teammate for track position.
Hadjar then returned to the track ahead of his teammate in 8th with Lawson in 9th and a trail of cars behind him. This would then be a theme of the race for many teams as the difficulty of overtaking showed more than ever in this race.
LAP 19: Lewis Hamilton came into the pit and looked to jump Hadjar into 5th with a great lap from the 7 time World Champion. A good stop from the pit team aided this as Hamilton was able to clear Hadjar and stay in 5th place.
LAP 20: The strategy for Racing Bulls paid off nicely as Hadjar came in for his second and final stop just over a quarter of the way into the race. Another great job from Lawson, who played the team game and continued to hold up the pack behind. Hadjar once again slotted ahead of Lawson and stayed 8th.
LAP 33: A frustrated Max Verstappen came onto the radio to tell his team that his “shifts feel like Monaco Grand Prix 1972”. At this stage he was 4th and over 2 seconds behind Piastri in 3rd and was not enjoying the car he had.
LAP 38: Fernando Alonso was seen going slow with smoke coming out of the back of his car as pulled the car off the race track in a safe area. He managed to pull the car and stop it at La Rascasse, once again avoiding a possible Safety Car if stopping on the track.
LAP 43: Replays showed a big slide into the frist corner for the McLaren of Oscar Piastri. He brushed the barrier with his rear left tire and was lucky to not get any more damage from the incident.
LAP 50: Going into turns 10 and 11, George Russell cut the corner and went ahead of Alex Albon into 10th. Russell then kept the place and went onto his team radio to say he was “avoiding a collision” and that Albon was “driving erratically”. Then when being told that he should give the place back he responded with “I’ll take the penalty”.
He then ended up getting a drive through penalty for the incident, which he was not best pleased with. He went on to say “I prefer not to speak” when given the penalty which he said he would rather take than give the place back.
LAP 53: Almost a mix of 2 incidents earlier in the race between Antonelli and Albon. Both drivers were going into turns 10 and 11 when Antonelli swerved round Albon and cut the corner just like his teammate did not long before. He did well to avoid Albon as it could have been the same fate as Pierre Gasly from earlier in the race if not worse.
Kimi Antonelli then gave the place back before the end of the lap due to Mercedes not wanting to have 2 drive through penalties for their drivers for mirror incidents.
LAP 70: Towards the end of the race Max Verstappen was the talking point at the front of the field. He seemed to be backing up Lando Norris to Charles Leclerc as he was in the lead but still had a pit stop to make.
Lando Norris was quickly onto the radio to say “Max is just backing me up, he’s not even pushing”. The frustrations of the Brit became clear as a race win in Monaco was on the line.
LAP 71: The gap out front was just a couple of tenths of a second as the McLaren and Ferrari showdown entered the final laps. The home crowd held its breath as they waited to see if one of their own to snatch a win in the closing moments.
LAP 77: Unfortunately for the home fans the backing up from Verstappen was not enough for Charles Leclerc to make a move stick in the tight corners of Monaco. With just 2 laps to go his chances seemed to fade.
As Max Verstappen came into pit at his last opportunity, Lando was released into clear air to extend the gap as much as he could on the Ferrari. He was 0.8 seconds behind going into the final lap, which seemed too far for a move to be made.
LAP 78: The McLaren of Lando Norris took the chequered flag to win the Monaco Grand Prix for the first time in his career! This also gave McLaren their first win at Monaco since 2008. A nervy last few laps but Norris ended up getting the win with a gap of over 3 seconds to Leclerc.
The closer battle in the end was for 2nd as Piastri ended the race just 0.6 seconds behind the Monegasque driver. Max Verstappen ended the race in 4th trailing by over 16.5 seconds but still quite a way ahead of Lewis Hamilton in 5th who was a further 30 seconds behind in a rather baffling result as he did not seem to have the pace like his teammate.
A great result for the Racing Bulls as their strategy paid off remarkably well with their drivers finishing 6th (Hadjar) and 8th (Lawson). A super driver from the Haas of Esteban Ocon who scored 6 valuable points for his team in 7th. With the top 10 rounded out by both Williams in P9 (Albon) and P10 (Sainz).
A day to forget for Mercedes as they ended up finishing the race in 11th (Russell) and 18th (Antonelli) with the hold up play from Albon and penalties they seemed to lose crucial points.
RACE RESULT:
1) NORRIS 2) LECLERC 3) PIASTRI 4) VERSTAPPEN 5) HAMILTON 6) HADJAR 7) OCON 8) LAWSON 9) ALBON 10) SAINZ 11) RUSSELL 12) BEARMAN 13) COLAPINTO 14) BORTOLETO 15) STROLL 16) HULKENBERG 17) TSUNODA 18) ANTONELLI 19) ALONSO (DNF) 20) GASLY (DNF)
