A Weekend in Monte Carlo
Photo from Formula 1.
The Monaco Grand Prix is arguably the most well-known race on the calendar. The 3.3-kilometer street circuit features tight corners, elevation changes, a rich historic background, and lots of celebrity and superyacht appearances. The circuit is also the shortest on the schedule, which means more laps than anywhere else and streets so narrow that a single mistake in qualifying can basically ruin your entire weekend before the race even starts.
Qualifying
Because overtaking at Monaco is nearly impossible, Saturday here matters more than almost any other round. And Kimi Antonelli made the most of it, snatching pole at the very last moment, beating out Max Verstappen and Lewis Hamilton. Charles Leclerc qualified fourth, Isack Hadjar fifth, George Russell sixth, Oscar Piastri seventh, and Lando Norris eighth.
Race
When the lights went out, Verstappen's car didn't get off the line. An anti-stall issue left him sitting there while 21 cars drove past, and Red Bull retired him before the first lap was done. Just like that, the biggest threat to Antonelli was gone. Piastri moved up to sixth, Norris dropped to eighth. Sergio Perez, meanwhile, accidentally drove into Gabriel Bortoleto's empty grid slot at the start (since Bortoleto had a car issue and started from the pit lane) and served a drive-through penalty for the accidental two-place advantage. Hadjar settled into fourth.
By lap 4, Antonelli already had a four-second gap over Hamilton at the front. By lap 12, he was already lapping cars at the back of the grid. Hamilton was reporting tyre degradation, which is not something you normally hear at Monaco. The gap between Russell in fifth and Piastri in sixth was already 10 seconds by lap 20.
Then, Hadjar's first gear stopped working, and the gap between him and third widened to 25 seconds as Russell tried to find a way past. Hadjar kept asking over the radio if something was about to explode. Russell couldn't get through anyway, since overtaking is so challenging. Valtteri Bottas and Oliver Bearman both retired as Hamilton picked up a five-second penalty for speeding in the pit lane.
On the Williams front the team told Alex Albon to hold position and let Carlos Sainz build a gap, pit, then hand the place back. As they built the gap, Williams spent several laps waiting for enough of a cushion over Nico Hulkenberg's Audi before they felt comfortable switching positions back.
As the laps ticked down, it continued as normal. Piastri pitted and dropped to sixth. Norris retired due to a terminal power unit failure. Five drivers total received unusual five-second penalties for speeding in the pit lane. And then, on lap 60 of 78, Lance Stroll hit the wall and brought out a safety car.
This is where things got interesting. With 18 laps left, the safety car was basically a full reset—Antonelli's big lead gone in an instant. Almost everyone pitted. Both Ferrari and Mercedes brought both their cars in, which meant Leclerc and Russell ended up stuck waiting behind their teammates in the pit box, losing time, which was not ideal for either of them.
The race resumed on lap 66. On the restart, Leclerc went straight into the same wall Stroll had just hit. It was heartbreak for the hometown hero. Monaco is his home race, one of the most personal weekends on the calendar for him, and he was unable to fight for a podium. He voiced his frustrations over the radio, “"I won't even take the blame.” The crash also brought the safety car back out.
On lap 68, the red flag flew and the session was stopped. Officials found the tarmac was breaking up at the final corner, which likely explains both Stroll's and Leclerc's crashes. It was the first red flag at Monaco since 2017. During the stoppage, Russell was handed a drive-through penalty for failing to serve his earlier five-second penalty during his pit stop, which pretty much ended his race. Hamilton and Hadjar were placed under investigation for not keeping the correct gap between them under the safety car.
The race restarted on lap 70. Hamilton was cleared with no further penalty. The restart itself was a disaster. Russell was extremely slow backing up the pack, Sainz made contact with Hulkenberg and hit the wall, then collected Franco Colapinto near the tunnel and retired. With three laps left Antonelli was first, Hamilton second, Pierre Gasly third with a 10-second penalty to serve, Hadjar fourth with power unit issues, and Piastri fifth. The race finished in that order with the exception of Gasly dropping down to seventh with his penalty and with Hadjar still under post-race investigation.
Antonelli led from lights out to the chequered flag. It was a dominant drive and his fifth win of the season, as his championship lead is only getting bigger. Hadjar came through to take his first podium of the year. Arvid Lindblad was all the way up in sixth from starting P15, an impressive drive for the rookie. And Albon scored his first Grand Prix points of the season, finishing eighth.
Some important news was announced post-race as well. Alpine requested a Right of Review from the FIA over Gasly’s missed podium. Cadillac’s first F1 point was revoked after Perez received a penalty for an infringement at the final race restart, bumping him to 15th. However, Hadjar’s post-race investigation had no further action, allowing him to keep his podium!
In the end, the Monaco Grand Prix seemed to start off pretty calm, but once lap 60 hit it was full of chaos—safety cars, a red flag, more penalties than I can keep track of, and only 15 cars making it to the finish. It was certainly a weekend to remember. Six down, 16 to go.
Small note: this is also the last race of the school year, so a huge thank you to anyone who has been reading any of these articles. I love writing about Formula 1, and I'm so happy I got to spend the first half of 2026 covering these races!
