Home Hero Leclerc Finally Wins Monaco Grand Prix

MONACO – Charles Leclerc led from start to finish to capture his first Monaco Grand Prix victory Sunday in the 81st edition of the famed event on the streets of the principality.

Leclerc, who qualified on the pole Saturday prior to the 78-lap race at the 2.074-mile Monte Carlo street circuit, held serve over both the initial start and the lone restart and was never seriously threatened.

For the 26-year-old Monegasque driver, it marked his sixth career F-1 win and was a long-awaited breakthrough in his home country.

“Yes! Yes, yes, yes, yes!” exclaimed Leclerc, who joined 1931 winner Louis Chiron as just the second native driver to ever win the Monaco Grand Prix, as well as the first to do so under F-1 sanction.

“No words can explain this feeling,” he added. “This is such a difficult race and a difficult course. I think because twice I started from the pole [here] and couldn’t make it happen, [winning now] means more in a way. It means a lot. This was the race that made me dream of becoming a Formula One driver. It’s just so special and an experience I’ll never forget.

“In the last 15 laps, the emotions were coming – I was thinking of my Dad, because he gave everything to get me here. It was a dream of his for me to race here and to win, so this is unbelievable,” he added. “We had quite a good margin, but we knew 78 laps on the tires was going to be tough, but the car was amazing.”

Leclerc took the checkered flag 7.152 seconds clear of McLaren’s Oscar Piastri, who was the runner-up.

The only true drama in the race came on the opening lap, when contact between Piastri and Carlos Sainz led to a punctured tire for Sainz at Casino Square, the fourth corner of the 13-turn street circuit.

He skidded into the runoff area from third place, but Sainz got a reprieve moments later when a massive accident led to a red-flag stoppage that reset the entire grid.

Contact between Red Bull’s Sergio Perez and Haas’ Kevin Magnussen created a huge shunt for Perez at Beau Rivage (turn two), which sheared three of the four tires loose from Perez’s RB20.

The second Haas of Nico Hulkenberg was also collected in the aftermath, ending the race for all three drivers before a full lap was ever in the books.

Alpine’s Esteban Ocon saw his race end on lap one, too, after a shot from teammate Pierre Gasly sent the rear of Ocon’s A524 several feet into the air before it landed hard at Portier in turn eight, just before the iconic tunnel.

The red flag allowed most teams to swap tire compounds so as to not make a pit stop later in the race, with both Ferraris and both McLarens swapping from the medium tires to the hard rubber.

From there, a half-hour delay for repair to the turn-two barriers followed before racing continued at 9:44 a.m. ET, with the restart lineup going back to the original start except for the cars ruled out of the race.

That means Sainz reclaimed third place for the resumption, behind Piastri and Leclerc on the front row.

Leclerc again won the race to turn one, a move that proved to be the winning moment. He opened up a 1.2-second margin over Piastri by the midpoint of the grand prix, then steadily increased the gap as the race wound through the late stages before cruising to the checkered flag.

Piastri’s second-place finish was his best Monaco result in just his second F-1 start in the principality, giving the Australian plenty of reason to smile despite coming up a bit short of the ultimate prize.

“It was a tricky race; the pace at the beginning was incredibly slow,” he noted. “I had one little half look into the tunnel, but I didn’t have a small enough car to fit into the gap. Nice to finally put a result on the board; we’ve been strong the last few races but not gotten the results. What a place [to get a podium].

“To be honest, Charles has been mega all weekend,” added Piastri. “It would have taken something very special in quali to out-do him … probably the best lap of my life, and it just wasn’t meant to be this time.”

Sainz completed the podium, with the sister McLaren of Miami winner Lando Norris crossing fourth and Mercedes’ George Russell finishing fifth.

Red Bull’s Max Verstappen, the three-time defending champion and current F-1 point leader, ended up sixth ahead of Mercedes’ Lewis Hamilton, Visa-CashApp RB’s Yuki Tsunoda, Williams’ Alex Albon, and Alpine’s Gasly among the top 10 finishers.

Sunday’s Monaco Grand Prix was completed in two hours, 23 minutes, and 15.554 seconds.

The Formula One season continues June 7-9 with the AWS Canadian Grand Prix at Circuit Gilles Villeneuve, where Verstappen has won the last two races.

The finish:

1. 16-Charles Leclerc, 2. 81-Oscar Piastri, 3. 55-Carlos Sainz, 4. 4-Lando Norris, 5. 63-George Russell, 6. 1-Max Verstappen, 7. 44-Lewis Hamilton, 8. 22-Yuki Tsunoda, 9. 23-Alex Albon, 10. 10-Pierre Gasly, 11. 14-Fernando Alonso, 12. 3-Daniel Ricciardo, 13. 77-Valtteri Bottas, 14. 18-Lance Stroll, 15. 2-Logan Sargeant, 16. 24-Guanyu Zhou, 17. 31-Esteban Ocon, 18. 11-Sergio Perez, 19. 27-Nico Hulkenberg, 20. 20-Kevin Magnussen.