Charles Leclerc won the Monaco Grand Prix, the Ferrari driver taking his first victory at his home race and becoming the first Monégasque to win here since the Formula One world championship began in 1950. Leclerc beat McLaren’s Oscar Piastri into second and his Ferrari teammate Carlos Sainz into third in a race marked by a horrifying crash on the opening lap for Red Bull’s Sergio Pérez. Lando Norris was fourth for McLaren, George Russell and Lewis Hamilton in fifth and seventh for Mercedes, with the world champion, Max Verstappen , in sixth for Red Bull.
Charles Leclerc wins F1 Monaco GP after avoiding ‘monster accident’ – live reaction Read more The race in Monte Carlo was a turgid procession once restarted after the accident, a drive which Leclerc controlled with admirable precision but no little monotony from the front. With the top 10 finishing in exactly their grid order, there was nary even an attempt at an overtake among them and, as Verstappen tooled round in a perfunctory fashion to claim sixth, the only real significance came in that his title lead over Leclerc was cut to 31 points. The home crowd clearly were not bothered at how the win came as they celebrated and Leclerc was unsurprisingly absolutely joyous with his first win at his home race coming at the sixth attempt having never managed to make it to the podium previously.
It has become known as the 26-year-old’s Monaco curse, a series of races where even his best chances seemed fated to fail..
