Antonelli wins race of atrition at Monaco
Kimi Antonelli has dominated the Monaco Grand Prix, leading the race from start to finish. Two safety car periods and a red flag couldn't stop him while behind it was an eventful affair with retirements and penalties all over. Hamilton finished second with Hadjar provisionally in third.
After a long wait for pole sitter Antonelli until everybody took their grid positions, the lights went out and Antonelli took the lead through Ste Devote. Verstappen meanwhile stalled after launching a couple of meters, his car soon flashing the orange warning lights on the mirrors.
Somewhat surprisingly everybody managed to drive around him on the narrow starting line with Hamilton taking second pace, followed by Leclerc, Hadjar, Russell, Piastri, Gasly, Norris, Lawson and Albon. That's seemed like a solid start for Russell as he got past Piastri but he was soon under investigation for being out of position at the start. Lucky for him, the stewards decided 10 minutes into the race that no further investigation was necessary.
Verstappen eventually got going and completed the first lap but then returned to the pits to retire the car. Bearman also pitted for a change to hard tyres. Bearman also pitted to change to hard tyres while both Aston Martins pitted in the first three laps to change to softs. Ocon later switched to hard tyres on lap 10 while Sergio Perez as called in to serve a drive through penalty for being out of position on the starting grid.
After Antonelli quickly sprinted away, lap 10 saw a reversal with Hamilton slowly closing in on Antonelli again despite reporting degradation and his car sliding around. By lap 16, the gap between the front two runners was 3 seconds with Leclerc 5 seconds behind his teammate. Hadjar by then was already more than 8 seconds behind Leclerc, conscious of Russell closely following. The Red Bull driver was struggling with a car issue for which the team couldn't offer a solution. Russell on the other hand noted he could go at least a second faster in clear air.
Piastri followed another 9 seconds down, then Gasly 5s further behind with Norris shadowing him since lap 1.
By lap 25 the gap between Antonelli and Hamilton had grown again considerably, up to 10 seconds as the Ferrari driver struggled with overheating rear tyres. He would pit four laps later, returning on track in third, losing position only to Leclerc, coming out on fresh hard tyres and still 12 seconds ahead of Hadjar.
The latter's pace had degraded further, often losing more than two seconds a lap to Leclerc. Russell followed very closely but couldn't find a quick way past while Piastri creeped in from behind. Russell got pitted on lap 32, exiting in 8th position with 10 seconds of a gap ahead of Norris.
Red Bull immediately responsed and pitted Hadjar the next lap, but despite his best efforts launching out of the pitlane, Russell breezed past, taking the position.
As Hamilton received a 5-second penalty for speeding in the pitlane, Leclerc got pitted on lap 36, taking on hard tyres and returning in third place again, 12 seconds behind his teammate.
One lap later Antonelli pitted and comfortably maintained the lead. Soon Russell was also given a 5-second penalty for speeding in the pitlane at about the same time as he joined Gasly and Norris who continued to fight for 5th place.
Russell surely wasn't going to sit about but he was in for another set of frustrating laps as Norris was asked to back up Russell, allowing Gasly to get away and making room for Piastri to make a pitstop while staying ahead of the Mercedes. Norris was told "back to normal" three laps later but continued to struggle and had no power through the tunnel on lap 44, seeing Russell pass by, followed by a slow drive to the pitlane to retire the car.
This unleashed Russell again, ready to make up 4 seconds to Gasly, only for Gasly to pit at the end of that lap. That was further good news for Russell. When Piastri was also pitted on lap 50 Russell moved up to 4th with Hadjar following 6 seconds behind.
At Williams the strategists were having some fun, asking Albon to switch positions with Sainz and then hold up the pack of cars chasing them: Lindblad, Hulkenberg, Ocon and Colapinto all saw Sainz sprint away from lap 48. A single lap later though Albon went straight through the chicane, following which he allowed Lindlad past on the pit straight, most likely to avoid a penalty. Albon was given 10th position back by Sainz after the Spaniard pitted and exited just ahead of his teammate.
Meanwhile it continued to rain penalties for speeding in the pitlane. After Colapinto earlier, Gasly and Piastri then also received one.
On lap 61 it's time for the safety car as Lance Stroll ended up in the tecpro barriers at Anthony Noghes. Hamilton, Piastri, Hulkenberg, Leclerc and Alonso pitted. Leclerc wasn't very happy with that stop, asking "why the hell are we pitting?".
Moments later race control ordered "all cars through the pitlane", triggering both Mercedes to stop and take on softs as well. Hadjar though didn't stop and therefore took fourth position away from Russell. Furthermore, Russell was held up by Antonelli's stop being slower than expected, had a slow stop himself too and on top of that his team seemingly forgot to serve that 5-second penalty. Piastri and Hamilton notably did serve theirs in their stops during this SC.
On lap 66 the race is on again but there was immediately another SC instated as Charles Leclerc crashed out in pretty much the same spot as Stroll did, immediately blaming "these ****** brakes". Half a minute later the race is red flagged, requiring all cars to return to the pitlane behind the SC to await a restart.
In that waiting time, the race director and officials inspected the track at Anthony Noghes, also requiring it to be cleaned.
The stewards were also busy as Gasly was given a second penalty for speeding in the pitlane. Russell was handed a drive through penalty for failing to serve his penalty during the pitstop.
The race restarted after nearly 30 minutes stoppage. Taking positions on the grid for 8 more laps, tension rose as the red lights went on. When they went off, Antonelli launched perfectly and maintained first, followed by Hamilton. Hadjar had a tough start however and lost two positions, enabling Russel to go third and Gasly fourth.
Russell did a seemingly delibarate slow first lap and served his penalty at the end of lap 72, rejoining ahead only of Colapinto. The latter had bumped Sainz into a spin just before the tunnel, forcing Sainz to retire.
Nothing could bother today's winner however with Kimi Antonelli continuing his impressive run of races. Lewis Hamilton finished a solid second. Pierre Gasly finished in third place but 10 seconds added to his finish time meant Hadjar (provisionally) finished third, just ahead of Piastri.
At the time of the finish, Hadjar was still under investigation though for a red flag infringement. A last minute 10 second penalty for Hulkenberg promoted Perez into the points, but with him likely to get a penalty for being out of position at the restart - just like in the initial start - Alonso might just inherit the final point, and the first point for Aston Martin this season.
