@CharlesLeclerc takes home #MonacoGP victory in processional race. #F1

Leclerc Monaco GP Victory – Charles Leclerc converted his pole position to clinch his maiden home victory at the Monaco GP in a solid drive holding off McLaren’s Oscar Piastri by 7.152 seconds as Carlos Sainz completed the top three in the other Ferrari SF-24 entry.

 

 

Leclerc lead from start-to-finish to finally break the duck on his home tarmac and became the first Monegasque driver to win his home Monaco Grand Prix in 93 years and take his fifth-career win.

 

When the 78-lap Monaco GP began, pole-sitter Leclerc made a brilliant start as behind them Sainz and Piastri went wheel-to-wheel towards St. Devote but the latter covered the Spaniard to hold second.

 

Sainz made contact with Piastri at the exit of turn one with the former suffering a puncture and going off at Casino Square.

 

Behind them, Red Bull’s Sergio Perez suffered a heavy crash going up the hill towards Massenet with both Haas VF-24 entries as Kevin Magnussen was squeezed, then tagged the Mexican sending him into a spin, hitting the wall and colliding also with Nico Hulkenberg scattering debris all over the circuit to bring out the red flags.

 

Perez’s RB20 was destroyed but thankfully all three drivers were unscathed in the incident.

 

Sainz managed to continue on and returned back to the pits.

 

Both Alpine’s also made contact on the opening lap as Esteban Ocon tried overtake team-mate Pierre Gasly into Portier, there wasn’t any room and both tangled, sending the former up into the air.

 

Gasly yelled over the radio: “What did he do?”.

 

The stewards deemed the turn one opening incident between Sainz and Piastri as a racing incident and no action was necessary along with the Perez, Magnussen and Hulkenberg clash.

 

The order for the grid start from the race stewards was as follows Leclerc, Piastri, Sainz, Norris, Russell, Verstappen, Hamilton, Tsunoda, Albon, Gasly, Ocon, Stroll, Ricciardo, Alonso, Sargeant, Bottas and Zhou.

 

Magnussen commented after the incident: “I had a good part of my front on Perez’s rear, and when he went to the wall I just got pushed into the wall. I trusted he was going to make a space. You have to have a car width otherwise you leave the guy no option. It’s unfortunate, a lot of cost for the team and a lot of work for the guys. From my point of view I was there, and I got squeezed into the wall.”

 

Hulkenberg also stated: “Turn 1, Turn 2 – finished. Kicked in the rear axle by Checo who had contact with Kevin. Typical Lap 1 racing incident, two drivers who didn’t want to bail out and I was the unlucky victim there. I don’t know what [the stewards] are going to do.”

 

When the race resumed as a standing start following a lengthy delay as the cars and debris were cleared and the barriers repaired, pole-sitter Leclerc got a good start into St Devote as all drivers got through unscathed.

 

At the beginning of the fourth tour, Leclerc’s lead was sitting at 0.800 seconds over Piastri with Sainz third, Norris fourth as Russell rounded out the top five as the top four were running the C3 white side-walled Hard tyre as Russell, Verstappen and Hamilton were all on the C4 yellow-branded Mediums.

 

Also, Alonso made short work of Ricciardo at the restart, climbing up to 12^th behind his Aston Martin team-mate Stroll as the pairing were stuck in a forming DRS train.

 

Russell in fifth place was told by his team that he did not need to run too close to the back of Norris, which he replied: “This is the only opportunity,” to try and jump his fellow British-compatriot.

 

Piastri was holding onto second and was told by his McLaren team that he was suffering damage caused by the incident between him and Sainz.

 

Lap ten saw Leclerc’s lead at 1.025 seconds over Piastri, with Sainz holding third, Norris fourth as Russell completed the top five runners.

 

The stewards deemed the incident between Ocon and Gasly was the formers fault, and the Frenchman was hit with a ten-second time penalty, but Ocon retired from the race after sustaining too much damage.

 

The race stewards stated that the penalty for Ocon will carry over to the Canadian Grand Prix as a grid-placed penalty.

 

Race leader Leclerc was managing his harder rubber and pace, keeping Piastri and Sainz closely behind.

 

Fifth-placed Russell was also managing his pace and was rapidly dropping off the top four runners, with Verstappen told that the former was opening a pit-stop gap for those up-front.

 

Mercedes also told Russell that they would gain “nothing” driving faster, with the Briton running on the mediums and trying to get to the end.

 

Leclerc was continuing to manage the lead between him and Piastri as Sainz and Norris were trying to keep out of the dirty air to preserve their tyres as much as possible.

 

If a pit-stop gap were to happen with Russell – McLaren could opt to pit Norris to attempt an overcut to split the strategies to try and win the Grand Prix and cause Ferrari a headache.

 

Race leader Leclerc had no interest in pulling away from Piastri, making a pit-stop a possibility for McLaren. But Bottas was the first driver to pit for a fresh set of the hards and posted the fastest lap.

 

Third-placed Sainz was pushing on to try and take Norris out of the equation to make it difficult for McLaren to try and pull a strategy threat.

 

On lap 20, Leclerc’s gap was 0.899 seconds to Piastri, with Sainz third, Norris fourth, Russell fifth as Verstappen completed the top six.

 

Behind them, Tsunoda had dropped well back from seventh-placed Hamilton as the former had a feisty Williams of Alexander Albon in ninth just behind with the Grove based-outfit looking to not risk losing out on any points.

 

Race leader Leclerc had increased his lead to Piastri with the gap sitting at 1.2 seconds as Norris started closing down on Sainz for the final podium spot.

 

Ocon stated in his interview following his retirement: “I’m okay. It was a hard launch in the air and a hard landing, but I’ve had worse days on that side of things. I think on that side of things I’m okay. Obviously, it’s an unfortunate incident to retire early in the race, after a long race that was going to go late on. A tough one. We tried to basically put the car back in the garage, so pulled out of the fast lane to try and repair what we could repair, but unfortunately, we discovered too much damage sustained. A chaotic first lap and I hope that the team can score some points today.”

 

There was tension down in the paddock with Alpine Team Principal Bruno Famin reportedly very unhappy with his two drivers following their opening lap incident.

 

The 30^th tour saw Leclerc’s lead at 1.218 seconds over Piastri with Sainz a further 1.5 seconds off the Australian and Norris 1.7 adrift of the Ferrari driver as the strategies between the top four continued to build. Protecting tyres, or thinking about building the gap to protect against the undercut? Those four can run to the end without stopping, bar any safety car periods should arise.

 

Third-placed Sainz started to drop back from second-placed Piastri and reported that his harder rubber was starting to grain along with his team-mate Leclerc and the McLaren driver ahead of him.

 

Sainz also reported to his team: “Is there a risk that if we open 20 seconds, Lando goes for a soft maybe? Lando on the soft will be dangerous, as tyres are starting to grain.”

 

With 40 laps remaining, Ferrari told Leclerc to drop the pace down to Piastri to try and ensure that Norris does not have a pit-stop window to Russell.

 

On the 40^th tour, Leclerc’s lead was 1.216 seconds over Piastri with Sainz third, Norris fourth as Russell and Verstappen rounded out the top six.

 

Lap 41 saw the leaders catch up to the backmarker train and now their tyres can cool down even more, but they had quite a few cars to clear.

 

On lap 43, Leclerc’s gap increased to 2.2 seconds over Piastri as Stroll pitted for his fresh set of hards and emerged in 11^th place behind Gasly.

 

Norris was also told by his McLaren team that he had the better conditions of his tyres over the top three as the Briton was still 14 seconds clear of fifth-placed Russell whose medium tyres were holding on well.

 

With 30 tours remaining Leclerc was told by his race engineer: “We are not interested,” as he offered to tell them how much quicker he could go – to which Leclerc replied, “That’s rude”.

 

On lap 50, Stroll suffered a left-rear puncture, as the Canadian limped back to the pits as the tyre carcass rolled away. He was forced into a second stop and put on a fresh set of the C5 softer compound. Luckily the tyre carcass rolled off into the pits so it could be easily cleared.

 

Replays showed Stroll clipped the wall at the Nouvelle Chicane.

 

Meanwhile Hamilton pitted for a set of hards on lap 52 to come out comfortably ahead of Tsunoda.

 

Championship leader Verstappen reacted to Hamilton’s stop and pitted for his fresh set of hards and covered the Mercedes driver to hold sixth.

 

On lap 54, Bottas made an overtake on Williams’ Logan Sargeant at Mirabeau to move up into 13^th place.

 

With 30 tours remaining, Leclerc’s lead was at 1.303 seconds over Piastri, with Sainz holding third and backing up Norris as Verstappen was starting to close-in on fifth-placed Russell.

 

Behind them Stroll, pulled off a bold pass on Zhou through the tunnel to take 14^th place from the Chinese driver.

 

A tour later, Norris missed his opportunity to pit because Russell sped up to try and fend-off a fast-charging Verstappen.

 

 

On the 63^rd lap, there was some potential for some drama, but Leclerc was making great progress up front and with clear air, the only car in his sights was Williams’ Sargeant who was on a fresh set of mediums.

 

Mercedes reported to Russell on lap 65 that his medium rubber does have enough grip to fend-off Verstappen.

 

With ten laps remaining, Leclerc increased his lead to 2.484 seconds to Piastri with Sainz third, Norris fourth, Russell fifth, Verstappen sixth as Hamilton reached the tail of the Dutchman’s RB20.

 

Perez stated on his opening lap incident: “On my onboard there is no point where you see Kevin and I was just pretty surprised that he kept it flat at that point, because it was just very unnecessary. We had a lot of damage; we had a very dangerous incident. Also [I’m] very disappointed that it didn’t get investigated, because it was a massive incident, my car is completely destroyed, and I have a lot of damage.”

 

A flyer from Leclerc saw the Ferrari driver’s lead up to 8.338 seconds over Piastri, with Sainz right behind the McLaren and within DRS range and has brought Norris into the equation as the three who had fallen away from Leclerc began to converge.

 

Leclerc crossed the line by 7.152 seconds to take his home Monaco GP victory as Piastri and Sainz rounded out the top three.

 

Norris followed in fourth as Russell came home fifth ahead of Verstappen who took sixth and Hamilton taking seventh in the other Mercedes F1 W15 entry.

 

Hamilton also scored the fastest lap bonus point on offer.

 

RB’s Tsunoda was eighth as Williams’ Albon and Alpine’s Gasly rounded out the final points places.

 

Aston Martin’s Alonso ended the Monaco GP outside the top ten in 11^th place and in-front of RB’s Ricciardo who placed 12^th and Sauber’s Bottas who came 13^th in the order.

 

The other Mercedes-powered AMR24 of Stroll took 14^th as Williams’ Sargeant and Sauber’s Zhou brought up the rear.

---

2024 Monaco GP – The Top Three

 

 

2024 Monaco GP Winner – Charles Leclerc, #16, Scuderia Ferrari, SF-24:

“No words can explain this. I think because twice I started from pole and couldn’t make it, it means more in a way. It was a race that made me dream of becoming a Formula 1 driver. In the last 15 laps, the emotions were coming – I was thinking of my Dad, he gave everything to get me here. It was a dream of his for me to race here and to win, so this is unbelievable.”

 

2^nd Place – Oscar Piastri, #81, McLaren Formula 1 Team, Mercedes, MCL38, +7.152s:

“Tricky race, the pace at the beginning was incredibly slow. I had one little half look into the tunnel, but I didn’t have a small enough car to pit in the gap. Nice to out a result on the board, we’ve been strong the last few races but not got the results. What a place [to get a podium]. To be honest, Charles has been mega all weekend, it would have taken something very special in quali to out-do him, probably the best lap of my life.”

 

3^rd Place – Carlos Sainz, #55, Scuderia Ferrari, SF-24, +7.585s:

“It was a tight one and a very bad feeling there in Lap 1 that turned into a very good feeling getting reinstated into P3. But I’m extremely happy to see Charles win his home Grand Prix and getting to share it with him. Maybe I had a chance to put pressure on Oscar to get him to do a mistake, we got him under pressure, but it was not enough to pass.”

---

Formula 1 Grand Prix De Monaco 2024 Race Results Classification (78 Laps)

 

POS	NO	DRIVER	CAR	LAPS	TIME/RETIRED	PTS
1	16	Charles Leclerc	FERRARI	78	2:23:15.554	25
2	81	Oscar Piastri	MCLAREN MERCEDES	78	+7.152s	18
3	55	Carlos Sainz	FERRARI	78	+7.585s	15
4	4	Lando Norris	MCLAREN MERCEDES	78	+8.650s	12
5	63	George Russell	MERCEDES	78	+13.309s	10
6	1	Max Verstappen	RED BULL RACING HONDA RBPT	78	+13.853s	8
7	44	Lewis Hamilton	MERCEDES	78	+14.908s	7
8	22	Yuki Tsunoda	RB HONDA RBPT	77	+1 lap	4
9	23	Alexander Albon	WILLIAMS MERCEDES	77	+1 lap	2
10	10	Pierre Gasly	ALPINE RENAULT	77	+1 lap	1
11	14	Fernando Alonso	ASTON MARTIN ARAMCO MERCEDES	76	+2 laps	0
12	3	Daniel Ricciardo	RB HONDA RBPT	76	+2 laps	0
13	77	Valtteri Bottas	KICK SAUBER FERRARI	76	+2 laps	0
14	18	Lance Stroll	ASTON MARTIN ARAMCO MERCEDES	76	+2 laps	0
15	2	Logan Sargeant	WILLIAMS MERCEDES	76	+2 laps	0
16	24	Zhou Guanyu	KICK SAUBER FERRARI	76	+2 laps	0
NC	31	Esteban Ocon	ALPINE RENAULT	0	DNF	0
NC	11	Sergio Perez	RED BULL RACING HONDA RBPT	0	DNF	0
NC	27	Nico Hulkenberg	HAAS FERRARI	0	DNF	0
NC	20	Kevin Magnussen	HAAS FERRARI	0	DNF	0

* Provisional results. Note – Hamilton scored an additional point for setting the fastest lap of the race.

 

https://www.formula1.com/en/results.html/2024/races/1236/monaco/race-result.html

 

Click here for the 2024 FIA Formula One World Driver’s (Top 10) and Constructors Championship Standings

 

Round nine of the 2024 FIA Formula One World Championship returns to the famous Circuit Gilles Villeneuve in Montreal, Quebec, Canada for the Formula 1 AWS Grand Prix Du Canada 2024 from Friday June 7-Sunday June 9.

---

#F1 #MonacoGP Qualifying: @CharlesLeclerc storms to home pole position.

#F1 #MonacoGP FP3: @CharlesLeclerc heads time-sheets in-front of @Max33Verstappen.

#F1 #MonacoGP FP2: @CharlesLeclerc quickest ahead of @LewisHamilton, @alo_oficial.

#F1 #MonacoGP FP1: @LewisHamilton pips @OscarPiastri by 0.029s, @Max33Verstappen 11th.

#F1 Grand Prix De Monaco 2024 Preview. #Formula1 #MonacoGrandPrix