2024 Monaco Grand Prix Recap - Leclerc’s Fairytale Weekend

by: Ana Laura Macchiarella

Welcome to the 8th round of this year's Formula 1 championship, the Monaco Grand Prix. This track has permanently been on the calendar since 1955, making this the 70th running of this race. Not only is this track an icon of the sport, but it’s also Charles Leclerc’s home race. The track itself is tricky for passing other cars since it’s so thin, and as we saw last year, rain can send the Grand Prix into chaos. Speaking of last year, the 2023 podium consisted of a P3 for Esteban Ocon, P2 for Fernando Alonso, and P1 for Max Verstappen. Aside from that, since this is the first European race of the year, many teams have brought upgrades to the cars. We’ve already seen upgrades from teams like McLaren and Mercedes, so it will be interesting to see if other teams can improve or worsen. Overall, Monaco is always an interesting race, so let’s recap the weekend.

Free Practices

Mercedes topped the first free practice session of the weekend, during which many drivers pushed the limits of the track. Many of them ended up running off the track, bumping into barriers, or driving over debris left by other drivers. Throughout the session there were also chances of rain, which carried on into the second practice session. Just like in the first session, the second session was filled with drivers barely skimming the barriers. This second round ended with Leclerc, Hamilton, and Alonso topping the charts. The third and final free practice went pretty much the same as the previous two, with the only issues being that Valtteri Bottas sustained some damage to his car after a minor slip up. This last session ended with Leclerc, Verstappen, and Hamilton going fastest.

Qualifying

Qualifying in Monaco can make or break a driver’s race, and Q1 was absolute chaos. Checo Perez had a shocking exit, only qualifying P18. Logan Sargeant pushed the car as far as he could, but he was beat out by Lando Norris, who barely escaped the bottom 5. Q2 and Q3 were relatively calm compared to Q1, with the only real drama being the fight for pole between Oscar Piastri and Charles Leclerc. Even though both Haas drivers made it to Q2, they had to start from the pitlane due to technical compliance failures. So the starting grid was as follows:

P1 Charles Leclerc (Ferrari)

P2 Oscar Piastri (McLaren)

P3 Carlos Sainz (Ferrari)

P4 Lando Norris (McLaren)

P5 George Russell (Mercedes)

P6 Max Verstappen (Red Bull)

P7 Lewis Hamilton (Mercedes)

P8 Yuki Tsunoda (Visa Cash App RB)

P9 Alex Albon (Williams)

P10 Pierre Gasly (Alpine)

P11 Esteban Ocon (Alpine)

P12 Daniel Ricciardo (Visa Cash App RB)

P13 Lance Stroll (Aston Martin)

P14 Fernando Alonso (Aston Martin)

P15 Logan Sargeant (Williams)

P16 Checo Perez (Red Bull)

P17 Valtteri Bottas (Stake)

P18 Zhou Guanyu (Stake)

P19 Pit Lane - Nico Hulkenberg (Haas)

P20 Pit Lane - Kevin Magnussen (Haas)

The race itself

The first lap was a mess. While all the drivers had a clean start, Sainz seemed to have had a puncture in one of his tyres, causing him to veer off the track. Then both Haas cars and Perez’s Red Bull were involved in a nasty crash, resulting in an early race red flag. Basically what happened was that Magnussen jumped into a gap between the wall and Perez that didn’t exist, and Hulkenberg was close enough to get roped into the mess. Finally, just before the red flag was called, both Alpines had contact. There was damage to Ocon’s car, enough for him to have to sit out on the restart. Esteban was issued a 5 place grid penalty for the next race, and issued an apology to the team via Instagram story that said: "Today's incident was my fault, the gap was too small in the end and I apologize to the team on this one. Hoping for a deserved points-finish for the team today."

The restart order was the same as the original starting grid, and since Carlos’ accident was menial enough that it could be fixed fast, he too got to restart the Grand Prix. It was a clean start for the 16 remaining cars, even though Bottas had a small issue that sent him to last with a pretty large gap to P15. He managed to recover with a fastest lap and continued to fight in the back. Near the middle of the grid, Alonso was slowing down to build a gap to Lance Stroll, and giving his teammate the opportunity to pit for fresh tyres and possibly overtake Gasly. But that plan was ruined when Stroll got a puncture in one of his tyres, sending him to the very back of the grid. Most of the action in this race was actually happening near the back of the grid, with Bottas and Stroll managing to pull off some great overtakes. Sainz and Norris spent a lot of the race fighting for that P3 podium, but the Ferrari driver came out on top. In the end, it was a fairytale weekend for Charles Leclerc. The Monegasque driver won his home race, and broke his “Monaco Curse”. The rest of the podium consisted of a P2 for Oscar Piastri and P3 for Carlos Sainz. The rest of the point scorers are as follows:

P4 Lando Norris

P5 George Russell

P6 Max Verstappen

P7 Lewis Hamilton

P8 Yuki Tsunoda

P9 Alex Albon

P10 Pierre Gasly

After 7 races and no points in sight, Albon scored his and Williams first points of the season. Gasly also scored his first point and the second point for his team. Honestly, it was something really special to see Leclerc take the top step of the podium, Monaco flag in hand. On that note, that’s a wrap on the Monaco Grand Prix! Congratulations to Leclerc and Ferrari, and I’ll see you in two weeks for my recap of the Canadian Grand Prix.