(Motorsport-Total.com) – Kimi Antonelli has won the Monaco Grand Prix, further extending his lead in the 2026 Formula 1 World Championship. With an impressively dominant performance, the Mercedes driver clearly beat Lewis Hamilton (Ferrari) and Isack Hadjar (Red Bull) on a sunny Sunday on the Cote d’Azur. And that after a curious race ending with two safety car phases and a red flag.
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Among the tragic figures of the day was local hero Charles Leclerc (Ferrari). Shortly after the first safety car restart in the final phase of the race, he slid straight into the barriers in the final corner – just like Lance Stroll (Aston Martin) before him, who had triggered the first yellow flag at the same spot. “Honestly, I don’t even take the blame for it. These damn brakes!” Leclerc fumed over team radio.
After his retirement, the race was first neutralized by the safety car and then even red-flagged. According to the FIA, this was to inspect the track, which had broken up at Turn 19. Apparently, a section of a newly applied asphalt layer had come loose during the race, leading to the accidents involving Stroll and Leclerc. Even though Stroll says: “In my case, the broken track surface was not the problem.”
Antonelli was not fazed by the interruption and brought home the victory dominantly after the (standing) restart with a 6.3-second lead. And he is still well on his way to becoming world champion. Because a driver winning five Grands Prix in a row and then not becoming champion has never happened in the history of Formula 1.
“The job is not done yet,” Antonelli waves off, saying: “It was one of those days where we had incredible pace. It came naturally, the car was incredible – and gave me the confidence to attack. I didn’t need the restart. But I tried to compose myself and focus. I was then able to enjoy the last laps.”
In the podium room, Hamilton congratulated the only 19-year-old youngster from Italy: “That’s a lot of wins, mate!” And Hadjar added: “Too many!”
Max Verstappen (Red Bull), second on the grid, had almost stalled on the very first meters and retired at the end of the first lap. Later in the race, Lando Norris (McLaren), the reigning world champion and last year’s Monaco winner, suffered a technical defect.
Pierre Gasly (Alpine) crossed the finish line in third, but due to a five-second penalty (his second in this race), he dropped behind Hadjar, Oscar Piastri (McLaren) and two other cars, finishing in 7th place in the final results.
The points positions were completed by Liam Lawson, Arvid Lindblad (both Racing Bulls), Gasly in P7, Alexander Albon (Williams), Esteban Ocon (Haas) and Sergio Perez (Cadillac), against whom an investigation is still ongoing because he allegedly took an incorrect starting position at both standing starts.
Nico Hülkenberg (Audi) finished ninth, but laid the foundation for this after the restart with an ambitious maneuver at the Loews hairpin, where he spun Carlos Sainz (Williams). For this, he received a ten-second penalty, which relegated him to 14th place.
In addition to the broken asphalt, an unusual accumulation of five-second penalties for speeding in the pit lane caused a lot of head-scratching. Among others, top stars like Hamilton and George Russell (13th/Mercedes) were caught, and Gasly even twice.
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Verstappen out: How did the start go?
Antonelli pulled away from his pursuers right from the start. After only two laps, he had a 2.9-second lead over Hamilton and 3.9 over Leclerc. After some botched starts at the beginning of the season, the Mercedes driver was flawless this time on his way to the first corner, Sainte Devote.
Verstappen, on the other hand, rolled slowly from his starting position, had no more propulsion – and came into the pits at the end of the first lap. “What should I do?” he radioed on the way there. His race engineer’s answer: “Just bring it home.”
With that, the hope for the first win of the season was gone. “An engine problem, I think. But we still have no idea what exactly happened. It’s a shame to leave after such a great weekend without points,” Verstappen regretted.
Otherwise, there were hardly any shifts in the front positions. Only Gasly moved past Norris and thus came back from the first lap in seventh place behind Piastri. Norris was still ahead of Gasly at Sainte Devote, but then had to brake to avoid a collision with Piastri, and so he lacked momentum up the hill.
Earlier, Norris had also indicated that Russell, in his perception, was outside his starting box. The race stewards investigated this, but an initial penalty for Russell was not issued on what was a black Sunday for him. The Mercedes driver initially slotted into fifth behind Hadjar. The judgment was different for Perez, who mistakenly stood in Gabriel Bortoleto’s (Audi) starting box and received a drive-through penalty for it.
Bortoleto had to start from the pit lane. The car had switched off on the way to the grid, but the crew managed to restart the systems. The Brazilian initially started the race last, and came back into the pits after just one lap.
The same applied to Oliver Bearman (Haas) and Valtteri Bottas (Cadillac), who also came in on lap 1. Bottas later had to retire after only 14 laps with a technical defect, Bearman after 26.
Antonelli Express: How did the first phase of the race go?
At the front, Antonelli set the pace unconcerned. After eight laps, he had extended his lead to more than five seconds. Behind him, Hamilton had created a four-second gap to Leclerc, who in turn had dropped Hadjar by three seconds. Hülkenberg was in twelfth place at that time.
After that, the usual picture emerged in the narrow streets of Monaco, where overtaking in Formula 1 is almost impossible under normal circumstances. The field gradually spread out, and the positions remained fixed.
After almost 20 laps, Russell reported on team radio that he could drive “at least a second” faster if he didn’t have Hadjar in front of him. The Red Bull driver, in turn, complained a lap later about the engine braking and an “unusable” first gear. Shortly thereafter, he radioed again: “The power is dropping.” And: “Something is about to explode there.” He was to be mistaken.
Bitter for Russell, because Hadjar’s gap to Leclerc grew to 16 seconds by lap 22. Nevertheless, Russell couldn’t get past. His lap times were now almost three seconds slower than Antonelli’s.
Read more Russell puzzled: Antonelli is increasingly putting pressure on the Mercedes star
On lap 28, Hadjar cut the harbor chicane. “That’s a lasting advantage,” Russell immediately complained on team radio, indirectly demanding a voluntary position swap. But it didn’t happen.
b#What happened during Hamilton’s pit stop?
Hamilton was the one from the leading group who opened the regular pit stops on lap 28. Before that, his medium tires had degraded, and his lead over Leclerc had successively shrunk. And because Hadjar had opened up a large gap in the field, Hamilton had a clear run again after the stop, lying in third place.
Despite the fresh tires (Hard), he couldn’t match Leclerc’s pace. In his very first “undercut lap,” he was 0.6 seconds slower than his teammate on the used mediums.
Only as the stint progressed did Hamilton regain the upper hand in terms of pace. But in the internal team duel, he still suffered a significant setback. Because he received a five-second penalty for speeding in the pit lane. After Leclerc’s tire change, Hamilton had a 9.6-second lead, which he now had to manage, including the penalty.
What happened to Russell afterwards?
On lap 31, Russell then decided to change tires, presumably to solve the Hadjar problem strategically. And it worked: Hadjar came in a lap later, but returned to the track behind Russell. The technical problems on the Red Bull could not be solved by the pit wall until then.
Russell then quickly caught up with Gasly and Norris, who had not yet changed tires. And he was in the sights of the race control, just like Hamilton (and Franco Colapinto) on suspicion of pit lane speeding. Penalty: five seconds.
Norris now acted as a complete team player, slowing down and holding up Russell to create a buffer for Piastri in their long-distance duel. But that only worked until lap 45: In the tunnel, the world champion slowed down and let first Russell and then Hadjar pass. At the end of the lap, he pulled over at the McLaren pit. Norris’s suspicion on team radio: defective battery.
Was Antonelli ever in danger again?
Antonelli changed from medium to hard tires on lap 37, one lap after Leclerc, completely relaxed. Even after the pit stop, he had a 17-second lead over Hamilton, plus a virtual five seconds due to the Ferrari veteran’s time penalty. Under normal circumstances, it was clear from that point that Antonelli would win.
After 50 laps, Antonelli had a 21-second lead over Hamilton and 26 over Leclerc. The Mercedes pit could theoretically even have afforded an additional tire change, which was not actually necessary.
And it would have been risky: In addition to Hamilton, Russell and Colapinto, Gasly and Piastri later also received a five-second penalty for pit lane speeding. Why this accumulation occurred is not yet clear.
18 laps before the end, when Stroll was stuck in the barriers in the last corner and the safety car was activated, Antonelli did not stop immediately. Only on the second lap under yellow did he change to soft tires again, one lap after the two Ferraris.
A pleasant side effect for Hamilton: Due to the unplanned second stop under yellow, he was able to serve his time penalty during a “double-stack,” where Leclerc had to queue behind him. And Leclerc rightly asked: “Why the hell are we stopping?” His chance to gain position on Hamilton within the five-second window was gone.
On lap 56, there was brief concern on the Mercedes pit wall when Antonelli reported a feeling of power loss. However, he continued to set the fastest lap times in the entire field. He had extended his lead to 26 seconds. “Fastest lap, Kimi. We don’t need that,” race engineer Peter Bonnington admonished him.
Why did Russell receive another penalty?
Russell lost a position to Hadjar under yellow because he pitted, while Hadjar drove through. Bitter for Russell: Because he had not served the time penalty for crossing the white line (barely!) at the pit exit during the pit stop under yellow, the race control imposed a drive-through penalty (“Failing to serve Time Penalty correctly”). Russell had immediately wondered about this on team radio, but was initially reassured by team principal Toto Wolff: “We’ll talk about that after the race.”
Possible: Perhaps the Mercedes mechanics assumed that a time penalty could not be served during a safety car phase. However, this is explicitly regulated differently in the Sporting Regulations. Or they simply forgot in the heat of the moment to wait for the time penalty to be served before starting the tire change.
How did the final race segment unfold after the red flag?
After the red flag due to the broken asphalt between Rascasse and the final corner, the field was first led onto the track behind the safety car. The field drove once through the pit lane and then completed two more laps behind Bernd Mayländer. Afterwards, a standing restart was performed. With Antonelli on “pole,” ahead of Hamilton, Hadjar, Russell, Gasly, and Piastri. Hülkenberg was in position 12.
Antonelli won the start a second time, but Russell and Gasly passed Hadjar, who was possibly still struggling with technical problems on his Red Bull and slipped off the podium. This was now within reach for Gasly, as Russell still had a drive-through penalty pending, which he served after two race laps under green. Russell fell back to P14.
But: Gasly also still had a virtual five-second penalty pending – and Hadjar with the technical problems behind him. Ultimately, the Alpine was not fast enough to pull out the five seconds, and so he was relegated in the final results behind Hadjar, Piastri, and the two Racing Bulls.
What’s next after the Monaco Grand Prix?
Race Sunday in Monte Carlo is not over yet for die-hard Formula 1 fans. Because on Sunday evening, there will be a detailed post-race analysis of the Grand Prix, hosted by Kevin Scheuren. The livestream will take place simultaneously on the Formel1.de YouTube channel and on Twitch. Channel members will have the opportunity to ask questions and discuss at the end of the stream. (Become a channel member now!)
Monaco was the sixth stop on the 2026 Formula 1 calendar. The fight for the World Championship continues in just one week with the Spanish Grand Prix in Barcelona. After that, the Austrian Grand Prix in Spielberg is on the program from June 26 to 28.
Reload page: The race report is continuously updated. Only when this notice has disappeared are no further updates planned.
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