After Lando Norris took his maiden Monaco Grand Prix victory last weekend, let’s reflect on the lessons learnt from the race overall.
For McLaren, it was another great weekend for both drivers. Pole and victory for Norris, with Oscar Piastri not far behind his teammate in P3. A double podium finish continues the team’s recent form, cementing them as the team to beat so far this season. Piastri remains slightly ahead in the Drivers’ Championship standings, with Norris trailing the Australian by merely three points. Norris handled Virtual Safety Cars well, maintaining his lead despite pressure from behind throughout the race and a huge lock-up on lap one at the first corner.
Ferrari took away a large points haul from this race. At his home grand prix, Charles Leclerc managed a second place finish, getting on the Monaco podium for the second year running. It proved not as impressive as his win last year, that broke his ‘Monaco curse’, but nonetheless, he gained a brilliant 18 points to maintain P5 in the Drivers’ Championship. Having led all three practice sessions, Leclerc will be disappointed that he could not convert early showings of pace in the race. For Lewis Hamilton, the race brought a fifth position finish. Starting from P4, he was overtaken by the reigning champion, Max Verstappen, to fall back one place. 28 points from a weekend they claimed to not expect much from is a great result for the team.
Max Verstappen gave another solid performance, earning 12 points in P4 on Sunday. He complained throughout the race about his car and its set up, stating it felt bad to drive. Red Bull ran him on a different strategy to the rest of the field, which led him to do long stints on his tyres. He led the race, due mostly to this alternative strategy, for large sections, especially near the end. At the race’s close, Verstappen was leading until the penultimate lap, when he had to pit for his second mandated stop. His teammate, Yuki Tsunoda, had yet another weekend to forget. Starting from P12 on the grid, Tsunoda soon fell back, ending the race in P17, two laps behind the leaders.
Racing Bulls’s Isack Hadjar had an amazing weekend. Qualifying in P5, the Frenchman lost a place to finish P6, his highest finish so far in Formula One. This brought him eight points, bringing his total to 15 for the 2025 season. With this result, he rose to P10 in the Drivers’ Championship standings. His teammate Liam Lawson was not far behind, ending Sunday’s grand prix race in P8. Lawson played a key role in Hadjar’s success, backing up cars to allow ample time for pit-stops, and letting his teammate be prioritised to secure the best result possible in the leading Racing Bulls car. Double points for the team is a great overall result.
Esteban Ocon had his most promising weekend in a while in Monaco. Qualifying P8, and maintaining his position in a quiet race landed him in seventh by the chequered flag. This added another six points to Haas’ overall haul, aiding them in the Constructors’ Championship standings. For Ollie Bearman, Monaco was very average. He mustered twelfth, being lapped twice by the leaders.
A double points finish for Williams was very pleasing for the team. Alex Albon had some tougher moments, especially scuffs with George Russell who accused Albon of driving so excessively slowly it verged on dangerous. Carlos Sainz was instrumental to Albon’s P9 finish, helping to create gaps for pit-stops with defensive driving. He finished in P10 right behind Albon. Each rose one position to reach the final points scoring positions, with Albon in P9 followed by Sainz in P10.
Mercedes had a shocking weekend, that they need to bounce back on if they wish to resemble their performance from previous seasons. The qualifying session started the competitive portion of the weekend on a bad foot, with neither driver making it out of Q2. Kimi Antonelli crashed out of Q1, ending his qualifying despite making the cut for Q2, while his teammate, George Russell, lost power during Q2. Neither posted a Q2 time. Things went from bad to worse on Sunday. After starting P14 (Russell) and P15 (Antonelli), both drivers ran on their starting tyres for a very long first stint. They managed to gain places to be in the mix for points scoring positions, which they quickly lost once they finally pitted near the end of the race. Russell was awarded a drive through penalty, after going off track at the chicane to overtake Albon, who he had not been able to overtake on track. Reporting on radio that he would rather take a penalty than give back the place, the stewards decided a drive through penalty, worth up to 20 seconds, was a suitable punishment. In the end, Russell managed a P11, quite a good result considering his bad race, while Antonelli was the last qualified finisher in P18, having been lapped three times by the leader.
Behind the Haas of Bearman came Franco Colapinto in P13. Alpine looked average the whole weekend, especially the Argentine driver, who has only just been called back into Formula One action. He gained five places over the course of the race, having started from P18 on the grid. Pierre Gasly, in the other Alpine, retired from the race following a collision with Tsunoda at the exit of the tunnel on lap 9. This is his only retirement from Monaco in his whole career.
The Saubers, under the Kick Stake label, had a weekend in keeping with their current form, only good enough for P14 (Gabriel Bortoleto) and P15 (Nico Hulkenberg). Bortoleto went into the barriers during a lap one incident with Antonelli, which made him crash down the order early on. He was unable to recover a points finish.
The Aston Martin cars had another weekend of no points, accompanied by a DNF from Fernando Alonso. Lance Stroll was only good enough for fifteenth in the other Aston.
Written by Alexandra.
Featured Image Credit: bbc.co.uk
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