Smile, Charles, Monaco is yours at last!

(Cover picture: Formula 1)

What an exciting Sunday in Monaco! Charles Leclerc wins his home Grand Prix for the first time, and he does so without making any mistakes in the 78 laps of the race in which he was followed like a shadow by Oscar Piastri, excellent second placed at the finish line. As you can see in the final classification, Carlos Sainz's other Ferrari completes the podium, benefiting from the red flag on lap 1 which allowed him to avoid the consequences of a tyre puncture.

Excitement and danger at the start: this is Monaco too!

After a Grand Prix like the one we witnessed, it seems clear that any discussion relative to the performance of each car becomes pointless: strategy reigned supreme, as we had easily anticipated at the end of qualifying. But let's rewind the race tape and start from the beginning...

Andy Hone / Motorsport Images

Two events happen at the start that marked the outcome of this Sunday in the Principality: in front of everyone, Leclerc went through the first corner undisturbed, while immediately behind him Sainz tries to overtake Oscar Piastri down the inside... not a risky maneuver, but one with potentially very serious consequences for the Spaniard's Ferrari, who came into contact with the side edge of the floor of the McLaren MCL38, thus suffering a puncture in his left front tyre.

After a few corners, the sparks caused by the contact of the floor of his Ferrari with the asphalt - caused in turn by the deflation of the tyre - clearly showed that Carlos wasn't gonna be able to continue with his car in such conditions: and in fact, in the Casino corner entry, the SF-24 forced him to go straight and stop on the side of the track.

Andy Hone / Motorsport Images

Race over? Not this time! In fact, behind what has been described, the second key moment of the first lap came into play, namely the crash between the Red Bull of Sergio Perez and the two Haas of Hulkenberg and Magnussen. Delving a bit more into the action, the accident was triggered by the "reckless" maneuver (to use a euphemism) of Kevin Magnussen, who, while exiting the Sainte Devote corner, tried to put the nose of his Haas into a very narrow space between the RB20 of Perez and the right wall; this triggered the Red Bull's contact with both guard rails, in a carambola that only stopped when the other Haas, Hulkenberg's one, was hit. Surprisingly, no penalty was imposed on the Dane: a decision with which I do not agree, given the senselessness of his maneuver in what was a very risky condition per se.

Andy Hone / Motorsport Images

What does all this have to do with Sainz? Following the crash, the track was flooded with a sea of debris that made it necessary a red flag, thus interrupting the race. Having not completed even one lap, after several minutes with the cars parked in the pits, the Race Stewards decided to restart the race with a standing start, following the order of the original start. Thanks to this decision (and the fact that he managed to bring the damaged SF-24 back into the pits), Sainz was thus able to recover the third position that he would otherwise have had to say goodbye to.

Zak Mauger / Motorsport Images

In the melee of what has been described, there was also a very hard contact between the two Alpine drivers, with Ocon attacking his teammate Gasly at the Portier, underestimating the (little) room the latter would have had in the subsequent traction phase: the result was a collision between Pierre's front right and Estaban's rear left tyre, whose A524 lifted off the ground and - as it fell once again onto the tarmac - caused the rear suspension to break. Race over for Ocon, who due to this contact then suffered a 10-second penalty which, being unable to serve it during this race as he retired, will be converted into a 5-place grid penalty at the next Canadian GP. 

At the restart a long chess game between Ferrari and McLaren pitwalls

At the restart, all 16 remaining drivers adopted a much more cautious approach, avoiding further contact with rivals or with the barriers, which are always very close to Monte Carlo even when it's not time to push hard.

Taking advantage of the race interruption, both Ferrari and McLaren pitwalls decided to replace the Medium tyres fitted at the first start with a set of Hard ones, in order to cover the entirety of the remaining laps on them. Behind them, the two Mercedes of Russell and Hamilton, with Verstappen's Red Bull sandwiched between them, made a mirror strategic move, replacing their Hards with Mediums.

Zak Mauger / Motorsport Images

In their case, however, the additional problem was making these tyres last up to the chequered flag, a much more demanding task than for the first 4, whose Hard compound was certainly stiffer. For this very reason, an important gap immediately opened between Norris' fourth position and Russell's fifth, which cannot be explained by a huge performance difference between McLaren and Mercedes but rather by the will of the Englishman from Toto Wolff's team to extend the life of his tyres, thus avoiding stressing them too much in the numerous traction zones of the Monegasque circuit.

Zak Mauger / Motorsport Images

In order to make this plan work, George kept Verstappen and Hamilton in his "backpack", aware that under equal conditions it would have been almost impossible for them to steal his position... The one who instead feared the dynamic that was taking shape was Sainz, whose fear was that - if the gap between Norris and Russell were to exceed 20 seconds, it would have given the McLaren driver a "free" pitstop (i.e. without losing track position). Carlos, always very analytical from his cockpit, repeatedly asked his race engineer to instruct Leclerc to deliberately slow down, so as to keep the field closer and neutralize the risk of a free pitstop for Lando: that's what we're referring to, when we talk about a "chess game" between the two pitwalls that were fighting for the win!

Glenn Dunbar / Motorsport Images

In the meantime, Leclerc in the race lead found himself with the difficult task of keeping a pace that was the right middle ground between having some respite from Piastri's pressing behind him, and the need to cover the delicate position of Carlos Sainz. This necessity, rather than for mere team spirit, was made clear as the Spaniard told his engineer Adami on the radio that if Norris had switched to Medium tyres, the lead of the race would also have been at risk. Obviously it's impossible to know whether this danger could have materialised, but in hindsight the team work carried out by Ferrari was excellent, because the gap of George's Mercedes from the car in front never came close - except for very short stretches - to the above-mentioned 20 seconds.

Glenn Dunbar / Motorsport Images

With a sensationally - and deliberately - slow midfield, Verstappen and Hamilton even made a second pitstop, and once they fitted the Hard tyres with which they had only covered lap 1, they began to set two or three seconds faster laptimes than the leaders, demonstrating that Leclerc, if he had pushed harder, could have kept a much quicker pace - as he also had pointed out to his race engineer Bryan Bozzi.

Endless last 15 laps for an (unusually) emotional Leclerc, but he takes the race win!

So, let's come to the final laps of the race, which whereas from the outside no longer told us anything in terms of strategic twists or position changes, inside Charles Leclerc's helmet they had a decidedly different meaning.

Glenn Dunbar / Motorsport Images

As Charles himself confessed in post-race interviews, despite being in a phase of the race in which he was pushing a little bit harder, it was very difficult for him to maintain all his concentration on the task he had to complete... The meaning such a win would have had was too big, in the place that introduced him to the sport he loves - with the support of key figures in his growth (such as his father Hervé and his colleague/friend Jules Bianchi) to whom he had to say goodbye, and who wouldn't have been under the podium to celebrate with him...

"I have no words to explain what I feel. This is always a very difficult race, I started twice on pole and wasn't able to win. For me it's always a very important weekend, it's the race that made me dream to get to Formula 1 one day. It was very difficult emotionally because with fifteen laps to go I was hoping that nothing would happen. I kept thinking about my dad, he gave everything to make my dream come true to win here, it's incredible"

Charles Leclerc

With them he'd always shared his passion for Formula 1, with Monaco as its epicentre and the dream of winning on his home soil as his highest aspiration, only behind to a possible World Championship. I wonder if that's what Charles was thinking when, a couple of laps from the finish, exiting the Tunnel his vision blurred by tears. But today, after the race win opportunities that sensationally vanished in 2021 and 2022, not even a rush of unexpected emotion could have stopped him: at the chequered flag, the home hero let him go with a liberating scream, aware that this time he really did it.

Smile, Charles: Monaco is yours at last!

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