Lando Norris leads from pole to flag in the Monaco Grand Prix, narrowing the championship gap to teammate Oscar Piastri to just three points.
Lando Norris secured a commanding victory at the Monaco Grand Prix, his first full race win since Australia’s season opener, controlling the race from start to finish in a flawless performance. Starting from pole, Norris expertly navigated a new rule requiring three tyre sets, maintaining the lead throughout and holding off Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc for the win.
McLaren’s Oscar Piastri took a solid third, ensuring a strong team result and reducing his championship lead over Norris to just three points. Max Verstappen finished fourth after a strategic gamble on tyre usage backfired, while Ferrari’s Lewis Hamilton managed a distant fifth.
The race unfolded under cautious conditions as the newly introduced tyre rule—intended to increase strategic complexity—did not spark the chaos many had predicted. A virtual safety car was the only significant intervention, triggered early by Sauber’s Gabriel Bortoleto crashing on lap one.
Norris’s start was flawless, converting pole into an early lead that he never relinquished. He, Leclerc, and Piastri all followed the same medium-hard-hard tyre strategy, dividing the race into roughly three equal stints.
Verstappen, hampered by limited tyre sets, was forced onto an inverted strategy, starting on hards and switching to mediums, with a delayed final pit stop hoping for a race incident to provide a red flag restart—allowing him a free tyre change. However, no such incident occurred, and Verstappen had to pit on the final lap, losing ground and finishing fourth.
The new tyre regulation’s intended unpredictability was ultimately theoretical, as teams braced for potential incidents that failed to materialise. Alpine’s Pierre Gasly crashed into Yuki Tsunoda early, and Fernando Alonso retired with an engine failure, yet the race remained largely processional.
Notably, Hamilton capitalised early to overtake Alonso during pit stops before his own troubles left him fifth. Racing Bulls’ Isack Hadjar impressed with sixth, while Haas’s Esteban Ocon finished seventh, ahead of Liam Lawson and Williams drivers Alex Albon and Carlos Sainz.
Albon’s tactics on track frustrated teammate George Russell, who accused him of erratic driving to manipulate pit strategies. Russell responded by cutting a chicane to reclaim position, accepting a drive-through penalty that compounded a poor race following an electrical issue in qualifying that saw him start 14th, ultimately finishing 11th.
Norris’s victory in Monaco cements his status as a serious championship contender, setting up a thrilling battle with Piastri and Verstappen as the season progresses.
