Kimi Antonelli won his fifth consecutive race for Mercedes, taking the famed Monaco Grand Prix by 6.27 seconds over Lewis Hamilton and Ferrari in an unusually dramatic event at the Circuit de Monaco, that was shortened from 78 to 72 laps due to track degradation in Turn 19, and saw several time-penalties assessed and six cars not finishing the race, dramatically altering the order of finish. There was also a second race start after a red flag on Lap 62.
Chief among the non-finishers were Max Verstappen, whose Red Bull did not even get off the start due to a power-unit failure, forcing them to retire the car; and Charles Leclerc, a Monaco native, who was in podium position when he crashed his Ferrari straight into a wall on Turn 19 with multi-system break failure; reigning F1 champion Lando Norris had his McLaren lose power completely on Lap 43, forcing a retirement. Lance Stroll (Aston Martin, crash), Valtteri Bottas (Cadillac, break failure), and Ollie Bearman (Haas, car performance) also did not finish.
Isack Hadjar, Verstappen's Red Bull teammate, got his second podium finish and his first for Red Bull, after he moved up to P3 from P4 after two five-second time penalties were assessed to Alpine's Pierre Gasly, each for speeding in the pit lane, dropping Gasly form P3 to P7.
Sergio Perez earned Cadillac its first-ever point, moving up from P11 to P10 when Audi's Nico Hulkenberg was assessed a 10-second time penalty for causing Carlos Sainz (Williams) to crash.
Oscar Piastri earned points for McLaren in P4, Liam Lawson and Arvid Lindblad finshed P5 and P6 for Racing Bulls. Alex Albon (Williams) and Estaban Ocon (Haas) finished P8 and P9, respectively.
All of them can thank George Russell and the Mercedes team for their finishing positions. Russell crossed the line in P4 but finished P13 after two time-penalties. The first was for speeding in the pit lane, but when Russell pitted under safety, the Mercedes team did not hold his car for the five-second penalty before changing the tires. So, Russell was assessed a drive-through penalty. Exiting under yellow, Mercedes offered to hold Russell on the next lap, but the race went red before he could do that, forcing a restart on grid. He never served either penalty during the race, and the tighter bunching after the restart dropped him nine positions.
My take: Power-unit failures continue despite most teams employing upgrades to this point. It was an exciting Monaco for a change — not for the right reasons, but it was more thrills than what we've seen on that circuit most years.
THE ASYLUM
F1: Monaco madness
Kimi Antonelli won his fifth consecutive race for Mercedes, taking the famed Monaco Grand Prix by 6.27 seconds over Lewis Hamilton and Ferrari in an unusually dramatic event at the Circuit de Monaco, that was shortened from 78 to 72 laps due to track degradation in Turn 19, and saw several time-penalties assessed and six cars not finishing the race, dramatically altering the order of finish. There was also a second race start after a red flag on Lap 62.
Chief among the non-finishers were Max Verstappen, whose Red Bull did not even get off the start due to a power-unit failure, forcing them to retire the car; and Charles Leclerc, a Monaco native, who was in podium position when he crashed his Ferrari straight into a wall on Turn 19 with multi-system break failure; reigning F1 champion Lando Norris had his McLaren lose power completely on Lap 43, forcing a retirement. Lance Stroll (Aston Martin, crash), Valtteri Bottas (Cadillac, break failure), and Ollie Bearman (Haas, car performance) also did not finish.
Isack Hadjar, Verstappen's Red Bull teammate, got his second podium finish and his first for Red Bull, after he moved up to P3 from P4 after two five-second time penalties were assessed to Alpine's Pierre Gasly, each for speeding in the pit lane, dropping Gasly form P3 to P7.
Sergio Perez earned Cadillac its first-ever point, moving up from P11 to P10 when Audi's Nico Hulkenberg was assessed a 10-second time penalty for causing Carlos Sainz (Williams) to crash.
Oscar Piastri earned points for McLaren in P4, Liam Lawson and Arvid Lindblad finshed P5 and P6 for Racing Bulls. Alex Albon (Williams) and Estaban Ocon (Haas) finished P8 and P9, respectively.
All of them can thank George Russell and the Mercedes team for their finishing positions. Russell crossed the line in P4 but finished P13 after two time-penalties. The first was for speeding in the pit lane, but when Russell pitted under safety, the Mercedes team did not hold his car for the five-second penalty before changing the tires. So, Russell was assessed a drive-through penalty. Exiting under yellow, Mercedes offered to hold Russell on the next lap, but the race went red before he could do that, forcing a restart on grid. He never served either penalty during the race, and the tighter bunching after the restart dropped him nine positions.
My take: Power-unit failures continue despite most teams employing upgrades to this point. It was an exciting Monaco for a change — not for the right reasons, but it was more thrills than what we've seen on that circuit most years.
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