Leclerc breaks Monaco curse and wins home GP after huge accident on Lap 1

Charles Leclerc won the 2024 Monaco Grand Prix without making a single mistake, breaking his curse of never stepping on the podium in his country. This was also the first time since the 2022 Australian GP when Leclerc was able to convert a pole position into a race victory on Sunday.

The rest of the top 10 remained unchanged from qualifying. Piastri finished second ahead of Carlos Sainz and Lando Norris. George Russell was able to defend against Max Verstappen and finished in P5. Lewis Hamilton finished seventh and also got the additional point for the fastest lap of the race. Even tough Yuki Tsunoda was lapped by Hamilton, he finished in P8 ahead of Alex Albon and Pierre Gasly. Albon and Gasly also scored their first points of the season this afternoon.

As it happened

Out of the Top 10 at the front, Max Verstappen and the two Mercedes drivers voted for starting on the hard tyres, everyone else chose the mediums.

The race got off to a classic Monaco start. At the front, Carlos Sainz could attack Piastri off the line, but he got a puncture and had to stop his car in the Casino corner. At the back, there was a big crash, as Sergio Perez was hit into the wall by Kevin Magnussen and Nico Hülkenberg was also caught in the accident. The latter collision left a lot of debris on the track, leading to a red flag. Esteban Ocon also tried to overtake Gasly ahead of the tunnel, but he only got launched in the air. 

Because the barrier was badly damaged, and the incident happened on Lap 1, Sainz got P3 back for the restart and Ferrari had time to fix their car, however, Ocon’s car could not be saved and he had to retire from the Grand Prix. The Frenchman also received a five-place grid penalty for the Canadian GP and criticism from team principal Bruno Famin.

For the second restart, everyone changed their tyres from either hards to mediums or from mediums to hards, except for Logan Sargeant. The second start went down without an accident, so the race could begin. At the front, Leclerc could hold onto the lead.

Because of the early red flag, no one was forced to make a pit stop. Only Fernando Alonso held the queue up behind him, in order to get a free pit stop for Lance Stroll in P11. It did not pay off for the Canadian, as he suffered a puncture after he hit the wall.

Mercedes also tried to undercut Verstappen with Hamilton on Lap 52, but Red Bull were alert. The first overtake also happened on Lap 52, with Bottas getting past Sargeant in Turn 5. The second overtake was executed by Stroll, who flew past Zhou first in the tunnel, then into Turn 1, he also overtook Sargeant. Later, Sargeant also took advantage of Norris lapping his group and surprised Zhou with a maneouvre.