Lando Norris wins the 2025 F1 Monaco Grand Prix
Both the Mercedes drivers, George Russell and Kimi Antonelli started from P14 & P15 respectively. It was Mercedes worst qualifying in over 13 years with both cars out before Q3 (Top 10 Qualifying).
Isack Hadjar had his best start of his F1 career from P5 after Lewis Hamilton's penalty dropped him to P7. It was also the first time F1 introduced 2 x mandatory pit stops for the Monaco Grand Prix where drivers had to put on 2 different tyre compounds.
The lights went out and Norris got the jumper, but in the 200m run into Turn 1, Norris had a huge lock up with smoke blinding cars behind but he skated through Turn 1 with his car and lead in tack.
But heading into Turn 8, entrance to the Monaco’s famous Tunnel section, Kimi Antonelli dived down the inside of Gabriel Bortelto in the Kick Sauber and Bortelto hit the tyre barrier. He was able to reverse out but the Virtual Safety Car (VSC) was out at the end of Lap 1.
Only a couple drivers took the opportunity to get one of the mandatory pitstops out of the way (Ollie Bearman, Yuki Tsunoda and Pierre Gasly).
The VSC ended on Lap 4 and this was were the games & strategy begun. For teams such as Williams and Racing Bulls who had two cars in Top 10, they had Hadjar and Albon respectively sprint off down the road, as Lawson and Sainz backed up the pack to ensure their teammates could pit and not get caught in lap track. Effectively they would pit and come out in front of their teammates. The queue of cars was building from Lawson in 9th place to Lance Stroll in 16th.
But on Lap 9, coming out of the Monaco tunnel, Pierre Gasly in the Alpine lost the rear of the car and smashed into the back of Tsunoda’s Red Bull. The front left was torn off the Gasly car, but rather than pulling over with the amount of damage, Gasly drove the remainder of lap spraying debris over the track, which caught the attention of race officials. Due to amount of debirs, the pit lane was closed as the broken Gasly car was in the middle of the fast lane. A weekend to forget for the Alpine squad.
With double waved yellow flags for the Gasly debris, Max Verstappen in 4th place looked to gain an advantage and pass Piastri for 3rd place, but drivers cannot overtake under the yellow flags, which the Verstappen got frustrated with.
On Lap 15, Hadjar pits from P5 for soft tyres, he comes out in P8 in front of his team mate Lawson in 9th. This was closely followed by Norris - race leader pitting for the hard tyre on Lap 19 and he dropped in P4. But Hadjar returned to the pits 4 laps later and swapped tyres again, due to the buffer that Lawson had created he came out and completed his mandatory pitstops and held position.
Lap 21, Piastri pits from 3rd but a slow pitstop was the last thing the championship leader needed as it’s so hard to pass on the tight and technical circuit. Piastri put in the fastest lap of the race on his out lap to ensure Verstappen didn’t jump him on his pitstop. Lap 28, Verstappen pits from the lead but comes out behind Piastri - the Australian held position and those fast laps counted.
On Lap 30/78, the leaders are starting to get the backmarkers and Norris was the first to clear the slower drivers with blug flags shown (blue flags mean slow drivers must move aside and let the faster driver through).
But on Lap 38 - the self-proclaimed ‘unluckiest driver in the world’ Fernando Alonso power unit gave up and he pulled to the side of the track. He was sitting in P6. It’s Alonso’s worst start to a season since 2015 back in the McLaren days with no points finishes in the first 8 races.
Lap 44, Piastri kissed the wall coming out of Turn 1. It was something viewers were used to seeing from the Australian during the race weekend as the rear of the car seemed to have no grip.
The race continues to become a teammate game with more drivers holding up the field. Albon & Sainz swap places to allow Sainz to sprint off down the road and build a gap to earn himself a pitstop to come out in front of the driver procession. But behind the Mercedes drivers were losing patience with Albon driving slower than usual.
On Lap 48, George Russell took avoiding action out of the tunnel and went straight on at the chicane, accusing Albon of late braking. Russell not giving the place back, set off down the road trying to build a gap out for what he thought would be a 5 second penalty. On Lap 53, the race officials came down hard on the British driver and he had a drive-through penalty for leaving track and gaining an advantage. Russell was furious.
Norris comes in for his final pitstop of the race on Lap 50 and comes out in P2, Verstappen ahead was hoping for a safety car or red flag to keep track position and change his tyres under those conditions. But Verstappen started to play games and he back Norris up, which played into the hands of Leclerc. The gap sat at 0.5 secs with less than 16 laps to go and Piastri was in P4 sitting 6 seconds behind.
Mercedes finally decided to take their first pitstop of the Grand Prix on Lap 64 with Russell pitting, Antonelli however, stayed out with many drivers and teams up & down the pit lane showing their disappointment in the new rules.
Both the Williams and Racing Bulls were sitting inside the Top 10 for double points finishes. Albon and Sainz sat P9 and P10 respectively. Hadjar and Lawson also sat P6 & P8 respectively. Haas also held their own with Esteban Ocon sitting well inside the points in P7, Ocon has maximised that car’s package this season and has earnt solid points in the first quarter of the season.
Lap 70 - Norris, mirrors full of Leclerc’s Ferrari was looking for his teammate, Piastri to distract him and take some pressure off him. Piastri closed in 0.4 seconds within 4 laps and P2 to P4 were separated by less than 1 second.
Lap 77 with one lap to go, Red Bull and Verstappen blink with no safety car in sight, their plan didn’t pay off and he pits coming out in P4 in a solid drive for Verstappen.
But Lando Norris held on in a tight battle to claim his first Monaco Grand Prix victory. For Norris it was his 2nd win of the season after taking out the opening race in Australia. It was McLaren’s first win in Monaco since Lewis Hamilton back in 2008 (haven’t things changed).
Leclerc the home hero secured 2nd place, whilist a solid result Leclerc was disappointed not being able to go back-to-back wins around streets of Principality. Piastri took 3rd place with his 7th straight podium of 2025. It was also his 34th point-scoring Grand Prix, which is the 3rd longest streak in Formula 1’s 75 year history.
The battle in the championship heats up with Piastri sitting on 161 points, Norris 3 points behind and Verstappen ready to pounce only 25 points off the lead (effectively a race win)
But the one thing to watch in the reaction post-race is overwhelming disapproval of the mandatory pit stops, but if you get down to the root cause of the issue, the streets of Monaco are too tight and Formula 1 cars have become too wide in recent years. Something has to give but neither side wants to budge..
Monaco Grand Prix Results:
1st: Norris - McLaren
2nd: Leclerc - Ferrari
3rd: Piastri - McLaren
4th: Verstappen - Red Bull
5th: Hamilton - Ferrari
6th: Hadjar - Racing Bulls
7th: Ocon - Haas
8th: Lawson - Racing Bulls
9th: Albon - Williams
10th: Sainz - Williams
Championship Standings after Monaco Grand Prix:
1st: Piastri (McLaren) - 161 points
2nd: Norris (McLaren) - 158 points (-3)
3rd: Verstappen (Red Bull) - 136 points (-25)
4th: Russell (Mercedes) - 99 points (-62)
5th: Leclerc (Ferrari) - 79 points (-82)
