2024 F1 Round 8 Monaco GP: Leclerc wins at home ahead of Piastri and Sainz, Ferrari double podium after four opening-lap retirements and a red flag

On the evening of 26 May, Beijing time, the Monaco Grand Prix, Round 8 of the 2024 Formula 1 season, was contested over 78 laps of the Monte Carlo street circuit. Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc led from pole and took the chequered flag in 2h23m15.554s to claim his first victory at his home race. Oscar Piastri finished second and Carlos Sainz third, giving Ferrari a double podium.

For the 26-year-old Monegasque, the significance of this victory was beyond measure. He had previously taken pole twice at home but had never stood on the podium here. “No words can describe this feeling,” Leclerc said afterwards. “Thinking about those two races when I took pole but could not win makes today’s victory mean even more. Monaco is where I first dreamed of becoming an F1 driver. For the final 15 laps, I kept hoping that nothing would happen, with the emotions welling up again and again. I thought about my father, who passed away in 2017. He gave everything to get me here. His dream was to see me race here and win here. So today was just perfect.”

The race descended into chaos on its opening lap. On the uphill run before Turn 2, Haas driver Kevin Magnussen tried to pass Red Bull’s Sergio Pérez on the right. The cars made contact, sending Pérez heavily into the barriers, while Nico Hülkenberg was unable to avoid becoming caught up in the collision. All three cars retired and the race was red-flagged. Pérez’s car was severely damaged, with little more than the survival cell left intact. Fortunately, all three drivers climbed out unaided and escaped injury. There was another incident at Portier, on the approach to the tunnel: Esteban Ocon forced his way down the inside of team mate Pierre Gasly, their wheels touched and his Alpine was launched into the air. The Frenchman returned to the pits but retired.

Sainz also suffered in the first-lap confusion. Contact with Piastri at Sainte-Devote punctured his left-front tyre, forcing him into the Casino Square escape road. The red flag saved his race: the car was repaired during the stoppage and the Spaniard retained his original grid position. After the restart, he held third securely to seal Ferrari’s double podium. McLaren used the interruption to replace Piastri’s damaged sidepod, although there was only time for a basic repair to the floor.

After the red flag, the race became a familiar Monaco procession. Positions at the front did not change, with the drivers focusing on tyre management and pit-stop windows as the remaining 16 cars completed the rest of the distance. Leclerc kept his advantage at a few seconds, with Piastri and Sainz following him across the line. Lando Norris was fourth, George Russell fifth, Max Verstappen sixth and Lewis Hamilton seventh.

RB’s Yuki Tsunoda crossed the line eighth, exactly where he had started, to score points for the third consecutive Grand Prix. The previous Japanese driver to score in Monaco had been Kamui Kobayashi, fifth in 2011, some 13 years earlier. Including the Sprint, this was Tsunoda’s sixth points-scoring finish of the season.

Alexander Albon’s ninth place brought Williams its first points of the season and its first in Monaco since 2017. In tenth, Gasly withstood the pressure after being hit by his team mate on the opening lap, delivering textbook management of the medium tyres to score his own first point of the season. Zhou Guanyu finished 16th, leaving Sauber as the only team yet to score this year.

Sunday in Monte Carlo was sunny, with an air temperature of 22°C and a track temperature of 48°C at the start. With Pirelli supplying the C3-to-C5 range, the leading four drivers started on mediums, switched to hards during the red flag and then reached the finish without a conventional pit stop. The two Haas cars had started from the back after being disqualified from qualifying because their DRS flap gaps exceeded the limit. Both were eliminated in the opening-lap accident, adding another twist to a chaotic afternoon.