Royal Rumble: Chaos Rules the Monaco Grand Prix

Round six of the FIA Formula 1 World Championship sees us at the renowned Monaco Grand Prix. A place on the calendar known for its glitz and glamour, celebrity appearances and a long list of incredible history at a track which has maintained a 76-year-old relationship with the F1 Championship and will continue to have one till at least 2031.

​Monaco, despite being a track like no other on the calendar, due to its nature of having teams maximise their drivers’ potential in qualifying and then forcing strategy to be prioritised over anything else, tends to deliver a show in some shape or form even when the fans expect it not to.

​The start of the 78-lap race saw a shocking early exit from Max Verstappen, who stalled at the lights, putting him at the back of the field before his team called him in on the radio to retire the car. This sees Verstappen with yet another DNF since he failed to finish the race earlier on this year in China after he suffered a loss of power with ten laps remaining.

​On the contrary, Kimi Antonelli had a positive start to the race after pulling away from the line nicely up to Sainte Devonte, where he then led every single lap after that. Kimi would later go on to take his fifth consecutive win, and grab not only his first ever Grand Slam (achieve pole, lead every lap, the fastest lap time and win the race) but also became the youngest ever winner at Monaco at just 19 years old. Once again proving that he is one to look out for during this championship season.

​While we could acknowledge the vast achievement of the young Italian, behind him, the race was anything but a smooth sail on a yacht. Numerous penalties were given to drivers for several reasons, lighting up the screens of those watching at home to look like a red traffic light stop. While many decided to serve these time penalties during pit stops, others chose to wait till the end to add on the time to their finishing position.

​By lap 60, not only did we see the exit of 4 cars (Verstappen, who exited on lap 1, Bottas on lap 15,  Bearman on lap 27, and Norris on lap 46), but the race was brought to a halt when Stroll had hit the barrier head-on at turn 19, effectively bringing out the Safety Car. Stroll would turn out not to be the only victim of Anthony Noghes, as just as the Safety Car had made its way into the pits, home hero and winner of the 2024 Monaco Grand Prix Charles Leclerc also went head-on into the wall, ending his race too.

A call for a red flag and temporary suspension of the race was called when Race Control had noticed the parts of the asphalt had been broken on the left side of the racing line on the entry to turn 19, which was found to be the cause of Stroll and Charles’ early race exit. Around 15 minutes later, it was decided that the broken asphalt would be swept aside and the racing would continue.

​Once again Kimi had a great restart and the pack was bunched back up together, however this didn’t fare well for a few drivers as places were lost and Carlos Sainz found himself in the middle of a F1 tennis match as he was hit by not only Hulkenburg into the hairpin but also by Franco Colapinto who attempted to make a move on the inside just before the tunnel but ended up hitting the rear of Sainz, spinning the Williams around and leading him to be the seventh car to retire from the race.

Kimi Antonelli crossed the finish line having gained a 6-second lead from Lewis Hamilton, who sat in second place, and won his first-ever Monaco Grand Prix. Lewis picked up his second silver trophy in a row, having also finished second in Canada, but also picking up his third podium of the season.

​Further back on the grid, a mistaken Pierre Gasly began celebrating what he thought was his first podium in Monaco, shaking his fist in victory and radioing to the team to share his happiness until the team made him aware that his 10-second penalty he had received earlier in the race for exceeding the 60kph speed limit in the pitlane twice, meant that he dropped from P3 to P7 and inevitably giving Isack Hadjar the final podium place.

A mixed day of emotions for a majority of the grid for what most thought would be a predictable start-to-finish race.