Monaco Grand Prix

For the first time ever, we have had an interesting Monaco GP so lets talk about it!

Qualifying

When it comes to Monaco, the place you qualify in seems more important than usual. Because of the nature of the track (a narrow street circuit), drivers are encouraged to go all out during qualifying as there will be next to no overtaking being done during the race.

The expected first and second row before qualifying seemed to be Mercedes, Mclaren and Ferrari, but this was not completely accurate, as both the Mclarens were unable to drive their car into the front and second row, starting 7th and 8th. Kimi Antonelli took pole, with Max Verstappen behind him in second and Lewis Hamilton in third, beating his teammate Charles Leclerc after he struggled and bumped the wall slightly during his final lap.

On to the impressive and shocking qualifying results, George Russell qualified p6, which isn’t a good luck, considering his teammate gained pole. Gasly and Lawson making it into the top 10 was an amazing feat, allowing them to gain more points for their team in the midfield.

Race Day

Now is the exciting part. The race begins with Antonelli racing off the line, maintaining 1st, while chaos occurs behind him. Max Verstappen wasn’t able to get off the line due to power unit issues, which makes this his 8th DNF in his career. Lando Norris was stuck behind Gasly in 6th and 7th and teh same seemed to be occuring up the field with Isack Hadjar and Geroge Russell. However, Norris retired his car after reporting issues.

Throughout the race, most drivers seemed to be picking up pit lane speeding penalties which could’ve been from a faulty sensor or of their own fault, but this seemed to change the trajectory of the race entirely. Hamilton, Gasly, Russell, Leclerc all had penalties at one point, with Russell being far more unfortunate as his penalty was not executed right. This cost him a podium and he ended up outside the points entirely.

Something peculiar happened as well, just 16 laps before the race ended. Lance Stroll crashed, and in the same place Charles Leclerc also crashed, ending the race for the home hero entirely. This opened the doors for Isack Hadjar to acquire his first podium as a RedBull driver. But this podium was also in question as he was under investigation for breaking red flag protocol. A miracle occurred though and he was not given a penalty for it, retaining his podium finish in a car that ‘felt like it was going to explode’.

By the end, we had seen 7 DNFs, one surprising overtake from Arvid Lindblad (who achieved his best finish in f1 at 6th) who is also showing much promise during his rookie year, being just 18 Years Old. Additionally, Kimi Antonelli gained his 5th win of the season and Lewis Hamilton is now 2nd in the drivers championship!!

With how exciting Monaco was, I don’t expect less from Barcelona this week.