Max Verstappen has taken his first victory in Monte Carlo after pole-sitter Charles Leclerc discovered a gearbox issue, as a result of his crash yesterday, on the way to the grid. Carlos Sainz secured his first podium for Ferrari after finishing 2nd and Lando Norris came 3rd for McLaren.

Key Points from the Race

Charles Leclerc never starts

Following Leclerc’s crash at the end of qualifying, many Ferrari fans were held their breath as they awaited news from the team regarding whether the gearbox on his car would have to be replaced. This morning, Ferrari announced there was no damage to Leclerc’s car and that he would be starting from pole. That was the case until Leclerc left the garage for his instillation lap where he quickly realised all was not well. To make matters worse, it became evident that the Monagas would not even be able to start the race from the pitlane due to the nature of the damage.

Mercedes Pitstop Woes

It is safe to say that Mercedes had a tragic weekend in Monaco, not helped by the return of their pitstop troubles. Firstly, the team decided to bring Hamilton in before Gasly (who was ahead of him) to attempt to undercut him. This failed as Gasly remained ahead and to rub salt in the wound, Perez and Vettel also got ahead of him in the following laps after successfully overcutting the 7-time world champion. Lewis never recovered from this and brought his car home in P7, his worst result of the season.

That wasn’t the end of the pitstop troubles, as when Valtteri Bottas came in for his stop, the front right tyre got stuck and would not come off due to a broken wheel nut. Consequently the Finn had to retire from the race.

Max Verstappen leads the championship

Max Verstappen delivered nothing short of a dominant performance around Monte Carlo as he pretty much led every lap from start to finish. His incredible win along with Hamilton’s disappointing 7th place sees the Dutchman lead an F1 world championship for the first time in his career.

No Overtakes

The Monte Carlo circuit is notoriously difficult to overtake at but a total of 0 overtakes (ignoring blue flag passes) is still an impressive feat.

Final Result