The news of the Monaco GP
Charles Leclerc did it. The Ferrari driver finally managed to break the curse and take victory in his home GP, in Monaco, breaking a fast that had lasted for him since the 2022 Austrian GP. Behind him Oscar Piastriwith McLaren, and Carlo Sainz, with the second Ferrari. The race basically turned into an endless procession after the initial red flagcaused by a chain of accidents that put the two Haas cars, Perez’s Red Bull and Ocon’s Alpine, offside.
The main ‘beneficiary’ of the initial neutralization was Sainz, who had punctured his left front tire in a contact with Piastri and was able to restart from third place. The possibility for all drivers to change tires under the red flag regime meant that the finishing order exactly reflected the starting order for the points zone: Norris, Russell, Verstappen, Hamilton, Tsunoda, Albon and Gasly were therefore classified behind the top-3. Jenson Button interviewed the first three.
The words of the top-3
Charles Leclerc (1st, Ferrari): “There are no words to explain how I feel. This race is really difficult. The fact that I started on pole twice and then didn’t win makes this victory even more beautiful. It means a lot to me. This is the race that made me dream of becoming an F1 driver. Difficult race on an emotional level. With 15 laps to go the emotions were coming and I was hoping nothing happened. I thought about my dad a lot more than I thought about driving. He gave everything for me to be here and it was our dream for me to race and win here. At the beginning we had a lot of margin, but we had to do 78 laps on the same tyres. We did great management. There was a large part of the race where we had to manage the gap on Russell. Then in the end I was able to push and the car was fantastic. I have to thank the team for doing an exceptional job over the last few months, giving me the chance to finally win this race.”.
Oscar Piastri (2nd, McLaren): “Complicated race. The pace was incredibly slow at the beginning and I had a little scare before the tunnel. I even almost tried, but there was never the gap to actually try. I’m happy with the whole weekend and the result we bring home. We had also been strong in the last weekends, but there wasn’t a great result to prove it. Finally the podium, there couldn’t be a better place. Charles was exceptional all weekend, you have to be honest. We had to do something really special in qualifying to beat him. The opportunity was almost there, but I was supposed to have the best ride of my life. I’m happy for the team.”
Carlos Sainz (3rd, Ferrari): “The start was really at the limit. I had a bad moment on the first lap, but luckily it passed quickly after I was given third place back. After that the race pace was good, as expected, but it was impossible to overtake on these roads. I’m delighted to see Charles win his home GP with the way he rode all weekend. I’m happy to share this podium with him, everyone in the team deserved this result. I tried to put pressure on Oscar, but there was no margin to try to overtake”.
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