Norris takes victory over Leclerc and Piastri in gripping Monaco Grand Prix

Lando Norris expertly converted pole position into victory during Sunday’s Monaco Grand Prix, leading home Ferrari rival Charles Leclerc and McLaren team mate Oscar Piastri at the end of an intriguing, strategic race, which saw Max Verstappen hold P1 until the penultimate lap on an alternate strategy.

Norris survived a massive lock-up at the first corner before working through Virtual Safety Car phases, spells of traffic and the mandated two-stop rule to score his second win of the season and slash Piastri’s championship lead.

Leclerc applied plenty of pressure at various stages of the race, including that initial run to Sainte Devote and late on when Verstappen backed the pack up, but ultimately had to settle for second, with Piastri – now just three points clear of Norris in the standings – completing the podium.

Verstappen ran an off-set tyre strategy that saw the Red Bull driver go much longer across his stints, giving him the race lead into the very closing stages, but he dropped to fourth after completing his required second stop with a lap to go.

FORMULA 1 TAG HEUER GRAND PRIX DE MONACO 2025

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Lewis Hamilton had a lonely race en route to fifth place, making up a couple of spots following his post-Qualifying penalty for impeding Verstappen, with rookie Isack Hadjar taking a fine sixth over Haas’ Esteban Ocon and team mate Liam Lawson.

Williams bagged a double points finish with Alex Albon and Carlos Sainz in P9 and P10, denying the Mercedes of George Russell, who grew frustrated at Albon’s defensive driving earlier in the race and picked up a drive-through for an illegal overtake.

Haas driver Ollie Bearman put on a strong recovery from his 10-place grid penalty and some wild moments in the opening stages to take the chequered flag in 12th position, followed by fellow rookies Franco Colapinto (Alpine) and Gabriel Bortoleto (Kick Sauber).

Bortoleto hit the barriers at Portier on the opening lap after a scrap with Kimi Antonelli, but bounced back to finish just ahead of Lance Stroll’s Aston Martin, experienced team mate Nico Hulkenberg and Yuki Tsunoda’s Red Bull.

Antonelli was the final finisher in 18th, having completed his pit stops extremely late in the race, with Fernando Alonso retiring for Aston Martin amid engine trouble and Alpine’s Pierre Gasly dropping out via a clash with Tsunoda exiting the tunnel.

AS IT HAPPENED

After another classic Monaco Qualifying session topped by Norris, attention soon turned to Sunday’s 78-lap race around the Principality, and how the new, mandatory two pit stop rule might shake things up over the course of the afternoon.

In short, every driver would be required to use three different sets of tyres across the race, including two different slick tyre compounds, with F1 supplier Pirelli amusingly declaring that “anything can happen” in their usual pre-race strategy guide.

A couple of drivers looking to take full advantage of that new rule were Bearman and Stroll, who lined up at the back with respective 10-place and four-place grid penalties – earned for various red flag, impeding and clashing incidents throughout practice.

Another man to lose grid spots ahead of the start was Hamilton, who recovered well from an accident at the end of final practice to finish fourth-fastest in Qualifying, only to earn a three-place drop for getting in Verstappen’s way during Q1.

As the drivers lined up on the grid, with Bearman’s car noted for being in an ‘unsafe condition’, it was revealed that the majority of the field would be starting on medium tyres, with Verstappen, Alonso, Hamilton, Sainz, Russell, Antonelli, Colapinto and Stroll going for hards, and Tsunoda running softs.

Norris started on pole after a pulsating Qualifying hour on the streets of Monte Carlo

Norris got away cleanly when the lights went out and survived a sizeable double lock-up at Sainte Devote to maintain his pole position advantage over a fast-starting Leclerc, followed closely by Piastri and Verstappen, with the rest of the top 10 positions also remaining unchanged.

However, the Virtual Safety Car was soon deployed when Bortoleto – having gone wheel-to-wheel with Antonelli through the hairpin – went straight on at Portier and hit the wall. The Brazilian backed out of it and headed to the pits for repairs, while Tsunoda, Gasly and Bearman also stopped for fresh rubber.

Lap 4 saw the VSC end and the race resume in earnest – Norris managing the situation well to edge away from Leclerc. Meanwhile, the aforementioned battle between Bortoleto and Antonelli was looked at by the stewards, who decided that no further action would be required.

The drama stepped up a gear on Lap 9 when Gasly ran into Tsunoda’s Red Bull under braking for the Nouvelle Chicane, forcing the Frenchman back to the pits and into retirement. ”Is he an idiot? What is he doing?” Tsunoda sighed over the radio.

As drivers navigated the debris, Verstappen saw an opportunity to attack Piastri on the run between the chicane and Tabac, with the McLaren man’s firm defence drawing a frustrated radio message from the reigning four-time World Champion. There would be no action from the stewards, though.

Hulkenberg and Colapinto were the next drivers to pit for fresh tyres under green flag conditions, following a brief pit lane closure due to Gasly parking up at Williams, before Hadjar boxed for softs from fifth and rejoined in eighth, just ahead of Racing Bulls team mate Lawson, who had been backing up the cars behind him.

Alonso and Ocon responded to Hadjar’s stop next time around, rejoining in seventh and eighth respectively, with the Spaniard shouting that “I can’t push now” on his harder rubber. Stroll and Bearman also took on more tyres, meaning the latter had already hit his two-stop requirement.

After being told to push by his engineer, Hamilton pitted on Lap 19 for a set of hard tyres, coming back out ahead of Hadjar, with Norris doing the same from the lead of the race shortly afterwards and returning to the track in fourth – a huge gap of clean air to work with and hammer in some quick times.

Racing Bulls’ strategy became crystal clear on Lap 20 when Hadjar pitted for a second time and took on hards, again rejoining in front of team mate Lawson, before Piastri got called in to try and undercut new leader Leclerc, albeit with a slow stop hampering that plan.

Leclerc duly stopped on Lap 22 and, despite Piastri’s best efforts, the home favourite slotted back in between the McLaren drivers – Verstappen, having started on hard tyres, sitting 10 seconds clear of Norris and extending his opening stint.

Verstappen worked his way to the front on a different strategy to those around him

“So now what’s the plan? Because that didn’t work very well,” Piastri lamented over the radio as the race settled back down. While McLaren pondered that, the only drivers yet to stop at all were Verstappen, Lawson, Albon, Sainz, Russell and Antonelli.

At this point, television footage cut to Russell harassing Sainz just outside the top 10 places, with the Williams man seemingly attempting to create a gap for team mate Albon ahead as per Racing Bulls’ plan. Mercedes boss Toto Wolff jumped on the radio to give his driver some encouragement.

Verstappen decided that enough was enough on Lap 28 and pitted for medium tyres, dropping him back down to fourth and restoring the original top three of Norris, Leclerc and Piastri. Ocon, Colapinto and Bortoleto also pitted for a second time, with the Sauber rookie intriguingly taking on softs.

While Norris and Leclerc complained about backmarkers not adhering to blue flags, Bearman added a couple more dramatic moments to his difficult weekend thanks to a wheel-to-wheel scrap with Stroll through Rascasse and a bounce over the kerbs exiting the Swimming Pool section – but no lasting damage was done.

At the halfway mark of the race, Norris led Leclerc by around six seconds, with Piastri five seconds further back and Verstappen hovering two more seconds behind the Australian. “Ah, my shifts feel like the Monaco Grand Prix 1972,” Verstappen then chimed over the radio.

Norris was soon back in the lead, but he had home hero Leclerc for company

Stops for Lawson (taking on softs) and Albon (mediums) meant only Sainz, Russell and Antonelli (all still running their starting sets of hards) were yet to complete a tyre change, while Bortoleto made his third pit lane visit of the day to switch to mediums.

Lap 38 brought another incident when Alonso parked his smoking Aston Martin at the exit of Rascasse and retired from the action, ending what had turned into a tough afternoon for the two-time World Champion after he lost places in the pit lane and developed a power unit issue.

Lawson and Albon pitted together again on Lap 41 to hit their required two stops, maintaining their places at the tail-end of the top 10 in the process, with Sainz moving into the points-paying positions thanks to Alonso’s aforementioned retirement.

Williams took the team game to the next level when Albon released Sainz into some clean air and backed up the cars behind in a bid to give his team mate a free stop. That added to the frustration for Russell and Antonelli behind – the Briton accusing his rival of driving “dangerously slowly”.

Piastri was the first of the front-runners to stop for a second time on Lap 49, prompting Leclerc to pit and cover him off a lap later, and then leader Norris to come in for new tyres one tour after that. Verstappen, meanwhile, continued on his way and extended once more.

Russell and Albon’s battle then turned sour at the Nouvelle Chicane. After avoiding the back of the Williams under braking and skipping over the chicane, Russell ignored Mercedes’ advice to hand back the position. “I’ll take the penalty… he’s driving erratically,” said Russell.

After a swift investigation from the stewards, Russell was hit with a drive-through penalty. “To be honest… I prefer not to speak,” he said in response. Now it was Antonelli’s turn to attack Albon, bringing another near-miss at the same spot.

Sainz and Russell both pitted on Lap 55 to fit new tyres, with the latter being told that his penalty would be delayed “as long as possible”. That meant Antonelli was the only driver yet to complete a pit stop with just over 20 laps to go.

As the lap count hit 60, Verstappen remained in the lead – but with that second stop still to be made – from a closing Norris and Leclerc. With no way through for Norris, it in turn allowed Leclerc to edge ever closer and hover only a few tenths back.

The situation continued into the final 10 laps, with Norris coming under more and more pressure from Leclerc. “Where’s Oscar? I need him to put Charles under some pressure,” Norris enquired at this point, adding: “Max is just backing me up. He’s not even pushing.”

Verstappen gave Norris a late-race headache before pitting on the penultimate lap

Norris did everything he needed to across a tense phase of laps before Verstappen finally made his second stop, releasing his 2024 title rival, Leclerc and Piastri back into the top three positions, which would remain that way to the finish.

In a statement to his rivals, Norris clocked the fastest lap of the race on his way to the chequered flag, before taking in the applause from the fans and celebrating his first triumph since the season-opening Australian Grand Prix with a cry of “Monaco, baby!”.

Verstappen followed the podium finishers home in fourth, with Hamilton the last driver to cross the line on the lead lap in fifth, and Hadjar, Ocon, Lawson, Albon and Sainz rounding out the points over a frustrated Russell.

Bearman turned 20th on the grid into 12th, ahead of Colapinto and Bortoleto, with Stroll, Hulkenberg, Tsunoda and Antonelli bringing up the rear – the latter waiting until the final stages to tick off his two mandatory stops. Alonso and Gasly were left on the sidelines following their respective incidents.

Nobody could stop Norris on the streets of Monte Carlo

Key quote

“It feels amazing,” said Norris afterwards. “It’s a long, gruelling race, but good fun. We could push for quite a lot of the race. [At] the last corner I was a little bit nervous with Charles close behind and Max ahead, but we won in Monaco. It doesn’t matter how you win, I guess. I had an amazing weekend. This is what I dreamed of when I was a kid, so I achieved one of my dreams!”

What’s next

For the final stop in a triple header of races, F1 will travel straight to Barcelona for the Spanish Grand Prix from May 30 - June 1. Head to the RACE HUB to find out how you can follow the action.

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