Antonelli holds his nerve to win chaotic Monaco Grand Prix

Kimi Antonelli avoided the late drama of the Monaco Grand Prix to consolidate his lead at the top of the Drivers’ Championship standings even further, beating Lewis Hamilton and Isack Hadjar in an exhilarating race that saw seven drivers retire.

At lights out in Monaco, the Mercedes racer calmly maintained first place as Red Bull’s Max Verstappen faced a devastating issue at the start that saw him slide down the order before he became the first to DNF.

While others struggled with various mechanical problems that forced them out of the action, including Valtteri Bottas and McLaren driver Lando Norris, Antonelli consistently opened up his advantage over the Ferrari pair of Hamilton and Charles Leclerc.

However, his win was threatened with around 20 laps remaining when Lance Stroll crashed at the final corner of the Circuit de Monaco, bringing out a Safety Car that allowed many to take a second pit stop without losing too much time. It may have put Antonelli’s lead in danger, but it offered a brilliant opportunity for those who had been handed time penalties for speeding in the pit lane to serve them during the race.

The restart was short-lived as local favourite Leclerc experienced an identical crash to Stroll’s and the event was halted to inspect track break-up at the site. His DNF helped promote Hadjar to his first Red Bull podium – Pierre Gasly finished ahead on the road but dropped down the order thanks to two five-second penalties – with Oscar Piastri and Liam Lawson taking fourth and fifth place.

Arvid Lindblad added to a superb day for Racing Bulls as he sealed P6 ahead of Gasly in seventh, Alex Albon in eighth and Esteban Ocon in ninth. Cadillac initially thought they had achieved their first points with Sergio Perez, but he was later penalised for a false start after the red flag and received a 10-second time penalty, dropping him to last place. This meant that Aston Martin could celebrate their first top-10 finish of the season with Fernando Alonso.

Just outside of the points was Aston Martin’s Fernando Alonso, who led from Gabriel Bortoleto and a heavily penalised George Russell. The second Audi of Nico Hulkenberg dropped to P14 at the chequered flag, with Franco Colapinto the last of the finishers.

Verstappen was the first shock retirement of the day as his car appeared to go into anti-stall at lights out, forcing him to watch every other driver sail past him before he returned to the pits shortly after. He was later joined by Lando Norris, who suffered issues with the power in his McLaren and failed to score points for the first round this season.

Ollie Bearman, Valtteri Bottas, Stroll, Leclerc and Carlos Sainz were the other non-finishers, with the Finn enduring further brake problems that plagued the squad all weekend while Stroll and the Ferrari man crashed into the wall late on. Sainz got caught up in two unfortunate incidents with Hulkenberg and Colapinto after the restart, leaving Albon as the sole points scorer for Williams.

After three eventful practice sessions and a nail-biting Qualifying around the streets of Monte Carlo, it was time for race day at the Monaco Grand Prix, marking the sixth round of the season.

Although Ferrari looked the team to beat throughout practice, it was Antonelli who secured a spectacular pole position at the last gasp as he edged out Verstappen and Hamilton to the top spot to set the stage for a thrilling start, with three teams occupying the front two rows.

Home hero Leclerc was set to line up in an underwhelming fourth place ahead of the second Red Bull of Hadjar and another disappointed driver in Russell, followed by the McLaren pair of Piastri and Norris.

Lawson, in the lead Racing Bulls machine, was faced with the threat of a pit lane start due to issues with his car but the team were able to find a fix in time and he made his P10 grid slot alongside Gasly just ahead.

Audi’s Bortoleto wasn’t quite as lucky as he ground to a halt at the pit exit before proceedings got underway, forcing him to abandon his planned P16 start and begin from the pit lane.

Last season’s mandatory two-stop rule was not in play this time around, with a one-stop race expected in the pleasant weather conditions. Once the tyre blankets were removed prior to the formation lap, it was revealed that the majority had opted for medium tyres – with the exception of Bortoleto and the two Cadillacs of Perez and Bottas, who all bolted on the soft compound.

Antonelli endured a long wait on pole position while the rest of the field pulled in behind him, but when the lights finally went out in Monaco, he executed a perfect launch and maintained the lead.

The Mercedes man’s expectations of a fierce challenge from Verstappen never came to fruition as the Dutchman failed to properly get going and could only sit and watch as his 21 rivals all sped past, allowing the Ferrari pair to instantly improve to second and third.

The rest of the opening lap was largely clean, with Gasly sneaking ahead of Norris before Bearman headed into the pits for a new front wing, suggesting that he suffered some contact early on. He was joined by Verstappen as Red Bull decided to retire him from the race, logging a frustrating lost opportunity for another podium.

Marginally behind, Russell breathed a sigh of relief after it was revealed there would be no further investigation into a false start, leaving him running in P6 around 11s behind his Silver Arrows team mate, who had opened up a 4.5s lead over Hamilton by Lap 8.

Perez was noted for the same infringement and ended up with a drive-through penalty for being out of position at the start – the Cadillac driver mistakenly drove into Bortoleto’s absent slot, giving himself an accidental two-place advantage. He took the penalty straight away and subsequently dropped from P16 to P18.

Those competing at the front began to come across the traffic caused by backmarkers, giving them an extra challenge as Ferrari tried to stay as close as possible to Antonelli, planning ahead to the pit stop window.

Some had already pitted in the early laps, such as Haas’ Ocon, who switched onto hard tyres and was covered off by Hulkenberg up ahead on Lap 14. One driver who looked to be struggling with his tyres was Hamilton, who reported that “there’s a lot of degradation on these tyres, the rears are very hot” whilst running in P2.

Despite the complaint, he had gradually reduced Antonelli’s advantage to less than 3s and wasn’t the only one hoping for a chance to overtake – Russell found himself within a second of Hadjar and noticed that the Red Bull’s front left tyre was graining, giving him the confidence to continue piling the pressure on as he sought to improve to P4.

That wasn’t Hadjar’s only problem as he came over the radio to panickedly report an issue with the engine, adding that first gear was not usable. He also had a loss of power and repeatedly asked for a solution as he felt “something’s going to explode”, with Russell in his mirrors all the while.

The Briton was increasingly eager to pass Hadjar as he claimed his pace would be at least 1s greater in clear air, which Antonelli was enjoying at the front of the field with a commanding lead of over 10s by Lap 26.

Even with the Frenchman’s multitude of car troubles, Russell still could not find a way past and resorted to practically sticking his W17 to the rear of the Red Bull, following remarkably closely through the Nouvelle Chicane.

Behind the duelling Red Bull and Mercedes, Gasly was simultaneously managing to keep Norris at bay even though the McLaren had consistently been in his wheel tracks for nearly every lap, hoping to recover some positions after a difficult Qualifying while Piastri was in no man’s land in P6.

The order up ahead shuffled slightly as Ferrari brought Hamilton in for his first pit stop, sporting the hard compound from Lap 29 onwards. The change was an impressive 2.1s and helped him to emerge behind his team mate, with the top three drivers having built a comprehensive gap back to the suffering Hadjar.

A lap later, Bearman became the third retirement of the event as he was ordered to box to retire the car, which Bottas also had to do earlier on due to his continued brake issues.

Frustrated by being stuck behind Hadjar, Russell pitted on Lap 32 for hard tyres, sending him back out in P8 behind Norris. The strategic move paid off perfectly as the Frenchman followed him into the pits and lost a position, giving seventh place to Russell. Next up on the Mercedes driver’s hit list was Norris, who reported having no power but was able to keep running, maintaining his small gap behind Gasly.

Meanwhile, Hamilton was dealt a blow as he received a five-second time penalty for speeding in the pit lane. With a sizeable advantage over his team mate once Leclerc had stopped for fresh tyres, a podium was still on the cards.

The drama developed further as Russell and Colapinto were both penalised for the same mistake – as all three had already completed their planned pit stops, the extra time would be added as they took the chequered flag.

Russell’s day seemed to go from bad to worse as he was then noted for crossing the line at the pit exit, but things were looking even more dire for Norris. With his speed dropping, he was passed by Russell through the tunnel and was quickly ordered to retire his McLaren, making Piastri their sole runner up in P4.

At the tail end of the top 10, Albon was told to switch positions with his Williams team mate Sainz, with the Spaniard on an alternative long-run strategy. While he questioned the decision, he obeyed and was immediately thrown into leading a string of midfield cars – just a couple of seconds separated Albon, Lindblad, Hulkenberg, and Ocon.

Albon’s dubious view of the team tactics quickly unfolded as Lindblad, who hadn’t yet pitted by Lap 51, found a way past after the Williams racer cut the Nouvelle Chicane and dropped out of the top 10.

The pit lane speeding fiasco continued as Gasly and Piastri were the next to be given a five-second time penalty. Stroll was also handed the same punishment for exceeding track limits, but points were already too distant an ambition for Aston Martin as they were running in 15th and 16th.

A shaky moment for race leader Antonelli followed as he claimed he felt “something weird with the engine” going up the hill – he then set the fastest lap of the race and was comforted by his engineer telling him it was nothing to worry about, enabling him to focus on managing his near-30s lead.

That was thrown into jeopardy when Stroll crashed into the wall at Antony Noghes, prompting a Safety Car that sent a flurry of drivers into the pits for a second stop. Among those were Hamilton and Piastri, who both took the chance to serve their time penalties – it was a good move for the Briton, but it simultaneously held up Leclerc who had to wait while Ferrari double-stacked their drivers.

With all cars ordered to go through the pit lane, Mercedes got stuck changing Antonelli’s left rear tyre and cut a chunk of the Italian’s advantage over the field. Russell also changed his tyres but didn’t join the others in serving his penalty, leaving his fate in the race up in the air.

His worries were rapidly eclipsed by Leclerc – as the racing resumed, he replicated Stroll’s incident at the final corner and drove straight into the barrier, resulting in a red flag for an inspection of the track break-up. The Monegasque was keen to suggest that it was far from his fault, ranting over the radio: “I won’t even take the blame”.

During the pause in on-track action, it was revealed that Gasly and – crucially for the title battle – Russell would receive further penalties. The Alpine driver got another five-second time penalty for a second instance of speeding in the pit lane, and the second Mercedes was hit with a drive through for failing to serve his original one.

There was so much still to be decided when the drivers returned to the circuit after the red flag delay, following the Safety Car for a couple of laps before preparing for a standing start. Although Antonelli once again led the field confidently and kept a dream lead over Hamilton, it was a disaster for Hadjar as he dropped behind Russell and Gasly and would be investigated after the race for a red flag infringement.

As the Mercedes driver backed up the pack, the traffic at the hairpin became too much to bear as Hulkenberg tagged Sainz and sent him bumping into the wall. There was more to come for the Williams as he then collided with Alpine’s Colapinto just before the tunnel and spun to face the wrong way, resulting in him retiring from the race.

After his strong reaction on the restart, Russell was called in to complete his drive through penalty and tumbled down the order to P14, making today his second consecutive Grand Prix without scoring points.

It was a far happier end to the Monaco Grand Prix for his Silver Arrows team mate, who crossed the line 4.4s ahead of Hamilton and posted the fastest lap of the day to boot. With so many penalties and investigations, the final podium spot was uncertain until the last moment, when Hadjar appeared to secure it, depending on the outcome of the post-race investigation.

Piastri was a respectable fourth as the lone McLaren left running, finishing ahead of the Racing Bulls pair of Lawson and Lindblad. After his two penalties were applied, Gasly settled for P7 while Albon, Ocon and Perez rounded out the points finishers.

Alonso narrowly missed out on claiming Aston Martin’s first points of the season as he wound up 11th from Bortoleto, Russell, Hulkenberg and Colapinto.

Sainz, Leclerc, Stroll, Norris, Bearman, Bottas and Verstappen were the race’s seven retirees, with the former three experiencing crashes while the latter quartet all suffered mechanical issues.

As part of a double header sequence, the drivers and teams will return to action at the Barcelona-Catalunya Grand Prix in just seven days’ time, with the event taking place over the weekend of June 12-14. Can Antonelli make is a sensational six successive wins?