Charles Leclerc became the first Monegasque winner of the Monaco Grand Prix since 1931s triumph by Louis Chiron. Leclerc led the race from the front after qualifying on pole and never looked back. The race was eventful at the start behind with multiple cars exiting the race after the first two sectors. By the end of lap 1 the race had been red flagged due to a crash between the two Haas cars and Sergio Perez. Additionally, Carlos Sainz also had an off after over running his breaks in sector 1 which ultimately also was attributed to a steering issue.
All Leclerc at the Front
After the race restarted it was all Leclerc at the front of the pack. He was never really threatened given the protections afforded to him from Monaco. It is one of the most difficult track for overtakes and qualifying usually dictates where you will finish in the race. After the race he stated, “
“This year he was much more relaxed from the beginning. From Lap 1 of FP1 he did a fantastic weekend, he was always flying. Even when we had the issue in Q1 with a plastic bag [going] into the front wing and we had to pit, we lost two or three laps in a row with this. But he was able to stay very calm – we could have been out in Q1. He was very in control from the beginning. Today in the race I think that it was perhaps not from an outside point of view the most exciting race of the season, but we knew after the red flag we had to do 76 laps with the same set of tires.
“No words can explain that. It’s such a difficult race. I think the fact that twice I’ve been starting in pole position and couldn’t quite make it, makes it even better in a way. It means a lot, obviously. It’s the race that made me dream of becoming a Formula 1 driver one day. So yeah, it was a difficult race emotionally because already 15 laps to the end, you’re just hoping that nothing happens. Already the emotions were coming. I have to say that I was thinking to my dad a lot more. It was a dream of ours for me to race here and to win, so it’s unbelievable.”