Monaco 2024 Race Review: Charles Leclerc Finally Breaks Home Race Curse!

The 2024 F1 grid recently visited the most iconic track of the year as they headed to the Circuit De Monaco for the second leg of their European double header.

With Monaco being such a tight street circuit, Saturday is a vital part of the weekend with the driver that tops Q3 having a high chance of being victorious.

After a strong weekend prior claiming yet another win, the Circuit De Monaco did not suit the Red Bull’s. Max Verstappen only managed to qualify in P6, splitting the two Mercedes with George Russell taking P5, and Lewis Hamilton P7, much further down the grid was where we found Sergio Perez who didn’t make it out of Q1 and qualified in P16.

Q3 was very tight with the top seven drivers being within half a second of each other. It also featured some uncommon names like Yuki Tsunoda, Alex Albon and Pierre Gasly who all had impressive Q2’s. The driver who was able to claim pole was home hero Charles Leclerc with a 1:10.270 giving the Tifosi something to cheer about in the grand stands as he earned Ferrari’s 250th pole. Lined up behind him was Oscar Piastri, Carlos Sainz and Lando Norris making it a Ferrari-McLaren sandwich!

Despite qualifying in P12 and P15 respectively, Nico Hulkenberg and Kevin Magnussen were both disqualified from qualifying following rear wing infringement which saw them start at the back of the grid.

With all fingers crossed for Leclerc’s Monaco curse to come to an end the Monegasque got a great start off the line.

As onlookers we learn to expect a race with little action at Monaco, but this race saw a lot happen on the first lap! Sainz did get a better start off the line than Piastri but the McLaren driver managed to remain in front, within the first four corners the pair collided slightly causing a puncture on the SF-24.

Further down the pack there was a huge crash causing a red flag between Sergio Perez, and both Haas’, the stewards deemed it as a racing incident with no driver at fault. Thankfully all the drivers were fine as it was one of the worst crashes in a while, but the same can’t be said for their cars!  

With all attention being on the big collision it was initially missed that both Alpine drivers collided with Esteban Ocon ending up airborne! The incident was caused by the number 31 who was unable to continue due to the damage, and was given a five-place grid drop at the Canadian Grand Prix.

All of that happened on the first lap! After a 40 min wait we were back racing again… unfortunately as expected not much happened for the remainder of the race. All drivers took advantage of the red flag and changed their tyres so they were not required to go into the pits again.

On the second standing restart, Piastri got off the line better then Sainz and managed to slot nicely in between the two Ferrari’s where he stayed for the rest of the race.

Lando Norris, who sat in fourth position, managed to create a 17 second gap from George Russell and came close to opening up the possibility of a free pitstop to switch to a different compound – way too risky if you asked me!

Something were not used to hearing as F1 fans is drivers being told to slow down, but lo and behold that was the radio message from Bryan Bozzi for Leclerc as they wanted the race leader to back up the pack to prevent McLaren having a free pit stop.

It wasn’t until lap 50 there was a small piece of drama. Lance Stroll hit the wall puncturing one of his tyre, which ended up falling off in the pit entrance, thankfully for him it happened near the pits so he was able to continue once replacing the missing tyre. This wasn’t the best outcome for Norris, Sainz and Piastri who were all hoping for a safety car to have a free pit stop and move up the podium spots.

On lap 53 we saw the first overtake of the race with Valtteri Bottas overtaking Logan Sargent, there were a few more later in the race but none that impacted the top 10.

In the closing stages of the race Russell tried to hold up Verstappen to allow Hamilton to close the gap, but the Brit was unable to make enough time to pass the Dutchman. Hamilton denied a front wing change that his teammate had as he didn’t want the grid penalty, but perhaps it may have seen him pick up a few more points, though he did pick up the fastest lap. 

Piastri dropped away from Leclerc and put himself under pressure from a more experienced Sainz, but the number 81 was able to hold on to the second step on the podium for his highest finish of the season.

The curse finally came to an end and Leclerc was the first to meet the chequered flag waved by French footballer Kylian Mbappe becoming the fourth driver to win a race this season. He finished an impressive seven seconds ahead of his newly adopted son, Piastri. Williams earned their first points of the season with Albon finishing in P9, Gasly took the final points position for his first of the season with Tsunoda finishing 8th as the best of the rest.

To top off an already incredible day, Leclerc was deservedly awarded Driver of The Day, the celebrations will now begin!

The next race is in two weeks where the grid will head to Canada where we will hopefully see more overtakes!