Cursed at home in Monaco, Charles Leclerc (Ferrari) had to give up even before the start of the Formula 1 Grand Prix on Sunday 23 May, leaving the field open to Max Verstappen (Red Bull) to win in the Principality and take head of the championship.
Qualified in pole position, Charles Leclerc finally left his Ferrari in the pit because of a technical problem. Starting in his place at the head, it was Max Verstappen who led the race from start to finish – in Monaco, it is almost impossible to overtake. “It’s so special to win in Monaco, it’s also the first time I’m on the podium here, it’s really cool”, relished 23-year-old Max Verstappen, who is now four points ahead of Lewis Hamilton (Mercedes), who finished seventh on Sunday.
Winner for the twelfth time in his career in Formula 1 and the first in Monaco, Max Verstappen overtakes the British driver at the head of the world championship. In five races this season, the Red Bull team driver has won twice (Emilia-Romagna and Monaco), against three victories for Lewis Hamilton (Bahrain, Portugal, Spain) in this duel at the top.
This time Lewis Hamilton, 36, finished far behind. Carlos Sainz (Ferrari) and Lando Norris (McLaren) completed the podium. Sergio Pérez (Red Bull) and Sebastian Vettel (Aston Martin) follow for an unprecedented top 5 this season.
Red Bull leads the constructors’ championship
For Mercedes, it’s a dark weekend: its other driver, the Finnish Valtteri Bottas, was forced to retire, stuck in the pit during the 31e turn because of a technical problem. As a result, Red Bull also takes the lead in the constructors’ championship, one point ahead of Mercedes, which has won all the titles since 2014.
Yet it is Charles Leclerc and Ferrari, in great shape this weekend, that everyone was waiting for. But the 23-year-old national hero did not take the start. If he had signed his first pole position this season, the eighth of his career, during qualifying on Saturday, he especially seriously damaged his car in the turn of the Pool, in the port of the Principality.
Saturday evening then Sunday noon, the team had said that it would start from pole position, the car having no “Apparent damage”. We had to wait for the first warm-up laps to face the facts: the Monegasque was not going to be able to leave.
“No, no, no no … The gearbox, guys [la boîte de vitesses, les gars] “, he said, annoyed, to his team in a radio communication, before returning to the pits to never leave them. “There, things are a little better, I had time to calm down, it’s true that I was very emotional in the car”, he added a little later to the microphone of Canal +. “It’s difficult, the mechanics did absolutely everything to believe in this victory. It’s a problem on the left rear of the car, not where we hit it, and it wasn’t a gearbox problem this time ”, he clarified, while adding that he was “Sure there was a link with the accident”.
For the return of the Monaco Grand Prix after a cancellation in 2020 due to the Covid-19 pandemic, Charles Leclerc was only able to position himself on the starting grid during the official ceremony, where Prince Albert slipped him a few words of support.
A real sledgehammer for the public committed to its cause in the stands, with 7,500 spectators (or 40% of the total capacity) expected at the maximum, health situation requires. At home, the Monegasque has always had to give up since 2017 after technical problems or clashes, whether in F2 in 2017 or in F1 in 2018 (with Sauber) then in 2019, for his first season with Ferrari. “Once again, not to finish … and there I did not even start, it is not easy”, he breathed. Charles Leclerc is now sixth in a ranking dominated for the first time by Max Verstappen.