Kimi Antonelli overcame the drama of a Monaco Grand Prix that descended into late chaos to claim his fifth successive Formula 1 win, as Charles Leclerc and Lance Stroll’s late crashes at Antony Noghes preceded a red flag and a closing eight-lap shootout.
A processional affair was soon blown open in the final quarter of the race when Stroll hit the wall at Antony Noghes, prompting the emergence of the safety car on lap 60. This prompted a flurry of action in the pitlane ahead of the lap 66 restart, but Leclerc’s crash at the same corner prompted the safety car’s return – and, shortly after, the red flag.
The culprit was a recently resurfaced layer of track on the entry to the final corner, which had broken up and left a sprinkling of asphalt on the racing line. Neither driver agreed that this was the cause of their crashes, however; Stroll theorised that an engine braking issue was behind his crash, with Leclerc blaming the brakes.
After the track was cleaned up and inspected by the FIA, the race was resumed after a 40-minute pause, with the field instructed to perform a standing start with eight laps remaining, with Antonelli from Lewis Hamilton on the front row.
Despite Ferrari’s prowess off the line, Antonelli kept calm in the face of chaos and covered off Hamilton into the first corner, which proved to be the clincher.
Antonelli had led every lap up until this point; hints of an early battle between the championship leader and fellow front-row occupant Max Verstappen had been dashed immediately, when the Dutchman’s Red Bull spluttered off the line and prompted the field behind to take evasive action.
Andrea Kimi Antonelli, Mercedes
Photo by: Joe Portlock / Getty Images
This put the two Ferraris, Hamilton from Leclerc, behind Antonelli, but the polesitter fled the scene immediately and gathered more than the required one-second advantage to nullify a potential attack from Hamilton.
Antonelli’s lead was up to five seconds by the end of the 10th lap. The gap between he and Hamilton closed up over the next 10 tours, briefly shrinking to below three seconds as the Italian had to dice with the early stoppers queuing up to be lapped. Yet, once the traffic had been cleared and when Antonelli had managed his brake temperatures, the gap over Hamilton quickly began to swell by over a second per lap.
The Mercedes driver looked serene in the lead of the race, continuing to run at a pace that was not viable for Ferrari to match; after pitting at half distance, a few laps after both Ferraris had conducted their stops, Antonelli returned to the circuit with 17.3 seconds in hand over Hamilton.
From there, it looked increasingly easy for Antonelli; a minor scare emerged when his Mercedes powertrain suffered a small derate on the run to Massenet, but Mercedes was able to identify the issue.
Yet, Stroll’s crash threw a spanner into the works, producing the safety car which wiped out Antonelli’s now nearly-30-second lead over Hamilton. After five laps in formation while the Aston Martin was being cleared, Antonelli appeared to have kept the Ferrari behind him covered off through the opening laps, although the race was put on ice moments later when Leclerc crashed into the wall at the final corner.
Antonelli maintained his cool to keep Hamilton in check on the eventual final restart, as the seven-time champion couldn’t keep hold of the leader’s coat-tails. Hamilton had been one of many drivers to pick up a penalty for speeding in the pitlane, although he was able to serve this correctly when switching to the softs during the safety car period.
Isack Hadjar crossed the line behind Pierre Gasly, but was promoted to third when the Alpine driver was hit with two five-second penalties – twice for speeding in the pitlane – but Hadjar has an investigation dangling over his head for a safety car infringement, where the Red Bull driver appeared to slow down ahead of George Russell and conceded more than 10 car lengths to the car ahead.
The track is swept during a red flag delay.
Photo by: Alex Bierens de Haan / LAT Images via Getty Images
Oscar Piastri was classified in fourth amid a difficult weekend for McLaren, which had to retire Lando Norris’ car as the reigning champion battled a problematic battery.
The Racing Bulls pair of Liam Lawson and Arvid Lindblad captured a big haul of points for the Italian squad. Lindblad had earlier interrupted Williams’ hold-up play to get both cars into the points, and did not make a single pitstop; instead, he benefitted from a red flag gamble, where he was duly able to switch to the softs for the final stage of the race.
Gasly was demoted to seventh ahead of Alex Albon and Esteban Ocon, while a late 10-second penalty awarded to Nico Hulkenberg promoted Sergio Perez into the top 10 to provisionally score Cadillac’s first F1 point – although he is also awaiting the stewards’ office to make a call on whether he false-started on the restart. Perez had earlier served a penalty for mistakenly starting in Gabriel Bortoleto’s empty grid box, as the Brazilian started the grand prix from the pitlane.
Hulkenberg had hit Carlos Sainz on the first lap of the lap 71 restart at the hairpin, pitching the Williams driver into the wall. Sainz’s afternoon was ruined further when he was tagged by Franco Colapinto moments later at Portier.
Russell endured a miserable afternoon after failing to serve a five-second speeding penalty during his second stop under the safety car; the Mercedes mechanics immediately got to work on the car, rather than wait for five seconds.
After dropping to a net fourth after his stop under the safety car, Russell’s chances of points were rendered slim when he was awarded a drive-through penalty when the team failed to clear the five-second arrears – and he duly finish in 13th, behind Fernando Alonso and Bortoleto.
F1 Monaco GP results
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– The Autosport.com Team
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