Charles Leclerc wins dull Monaco Grand Prix after red flag as even Verstappen fumes ‘I should have brought my pillow’
CHARLES LECLERC ended his Monaco jinx with a victory in his home race.
But in truth this was a massively dull race with ZERO overtaking in the top 10, and the cars placed from first to 10th finished in exactly the same order they started.
Perhaps the biggest shock was seeing Ferrari not stuff it up for once, as Monte-Carlo born Leclerc took the chequered flag.
The procession through the streets would not dampen his mood or that of his Italian team.
But it again raises the question whether this race should remain on the F1 calendar at all.
The cars are too big, the circuit is too narrow.
And at the halfway point while leading Leclerc was told to “slow down a bit” by his team as it became a game of driving so slowly to save tyre life.
It is simply incredible that a premier racing class should feature such instructions but here we are.
At one point, Max Verstappen, who started and finished in sixth, radioed his team and said: “F*** me! This is really boring, I should have bought my pillow.”
The on track “action” boiled down to a first lap crash that saw the race stopped when Kevin Magnussen and Sergio Perez made contact at 150mph.
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As the two cars tangled at speed the wreckage also collected Nico Hulkenberg to cause a three-car pile up.
The incident was not initially caught by the TV director as pictures showed Carlos Sainz locking up from third place, temporarily promoting Lando Norris to third.
However, the stewards threw the stop flag as soon as they became aware of the wreckage caused by Perez’s smash.
Incredibly, and somewhat perplexingly, there was no further action from the stewards, who deemed the first lap smash a racing incident.
There was also contact between the two Alpine drivers at turn eight as they banged wheels sending Esteban Ocon into the air.
“What did he do? Why did he try to attack me! Oh my gosh,” said Gasly over the radio. “The whole car is damaged now!”
Ocon retired from the race and was subsequently hit with a five-place penalty for the next race in Canada.
He later apologised on social media, saying: “Today’s incident was my fault, the gap was too small in the end and I apologise to the team on this.”
Sainz was given third on the grid for the restart, as Norris bumped back down to fourth.
In the following one hour and 44 minutes nothing happened for the drivers driving at reduced capacity of their brilliant machines.
Leclerc took the win as Oscar Piastri finished second while Sainz was third.
Norris was in fourth ahead of George Russell and Verstappen while Lewis Hamilton was seventh.
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