Local hero rejoices
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The spell is broken! Charles Leclerc has won his home GP in Monaco for the first time in his career. The Ferrari driver was not to be denied a start-finish victory, triumphing on Sunday ahead of McLaren driver Oscar Piastri and team-mate Carlos Sainz.
Ferrari driver Charles Leclerc broke his own Monaco curse and celebrated his first home win in Formula 1. The Monegasque triumphed on Sunday in a Grand Prix that was unspectacular for long stretches, ahead of McLaren driver Oscar Piastri and Carlos Sainz in the second Ferrari.
Leclerc celebrated his first victory in the Principality since Spielberg 2022 and reduced the gap to championship leader Max Verstappen, who finished sixth, to 31 points.
The final score:
Leclerc, who was born and lives in Monaco, won from pole position on the iconic street circuit on the Côte d'Azur, having already started from the front in 2021 and 2022. "This makes it even better now and means so much to me," explained Leclerc. "It's the race that made me dream of becoming a Formula 1 driver." So far, however, it had only been enough for a fourth place in his home country, but now the 26-year-old fulfilled a dream with his sixth GP victory in the premier class of motorsport.
Poor vision due to tears
"Words can't describe it," he said in the winner's interview, fighting back tears. "It's such a difficult race. I was hoping the whole time that nothing would happen." In a conversation with Sainz before the podium ceremony, the Scuderia star spoke about minor difficulties shortly before the end. "The emotions got the better of me at the end and I had problems seeing anything," Leclerc said and laughed. Beforehand, he had already announced a long night of partying in the Jimmy'z discotheque.
Leclerc then waved the Monegasque flag in Prince Albert II's box and was celebrated frenetically by the audience. Piastri was delighted with his second place in the classic race on the Mediterranean. "Podium in Monaco, what could be better?" said the 23-year-old Australian with satisfaction. Verstappen, on the other hand, had previously complained on the pit radio. "This is really boring, I should have brought my head cushion," said the Red Bull world champion angrily.
Mega crash on lap one
The starting phase was overshadowed by a serious accident. Red Bull driver Sergio Perez started the race from 16th place and was spun into the barriers at full speed by Kevin Magnussen in the Haas after the first corner. The Red Bull car came to a standstill completely destroyed, but Perez survived the crash unharmed. Magnussen and his German team-mate Nico Hülkenberg were also unable to continue, as was Esteban Ocon after an over-motivated overtaking maneuver against his Alpine colleague Pierre Gasly.
Magnussen did not only blame himself. "I relied on him to give me space. I don't know how that can be my fault. Normally, you should look at what's going on around you," said the Dane. "Both could have prevented it," emphasized Hülkenberg. The race was interrupted for three quarters of an hour for repair work on the barriers and the strategies were thrown overboard. All the top drivers used the free pit stop during the interruption to change tires.
At the restart, Leclerc also used the advantage of being first on the grid and defended his lead. Behind him, everyone was disciplined and there were no further accidents. Sainz, who had damaged his car at the first start and dropped back, was fortunate to be back in third place after the restart. In front of the skiing dream couple Mikaela Shiffrin and Aleksander Aamodt Kilde, Leclerc led the race unchallenged and tried to run his hard set of tires over the full distance of 78 laps without taking any risks.
The drivers were correspondingly slow, also because overtaking maneuvers on the narrow street circuit were virtually impossible. The celebrities at the track saw a boring race with no highlights and tactical braking. "You have to drive a little slower if you can," Leclerc was told on the pit radio. The background to this was a possible pit stop window for fourth-placed McLaren driver Lando Norris, who at one point had a large lead over George Russell in the Mercedes and could therefore have put on softer and faster tires under certain circumstances.
Meanwhile, last year's winner Verstappen was stuck in sixth place behind Russell. The first ten drivers on the grid also finished in this order. Soccer superstar Kylian Mbappé waved the chequered flag. In two weeks' time, the Canadian Grand Prix in Montreal is once again expected to see plenty of overtaking maneuvers.
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