The preview said Monaco was the best chance anyone had to stop Andrea Kimi Antonelli . Instead he took pole with a 1:12.051, led every lap, set the fastest lap of the race on lap 76, and won the Monaco Grand Prix at nineteen. That is a grand slam, and it makes him the youngest winner in the history of this race and the youngest driver ever to complete one. It also made him the first Italian to take pole at Monaco since Jarno Trulli in 2004.
The rest of the afternoon was considerably less tidy. Six cars retired, a red flag stopped the race with fourteen laps to go, and the final podium position was not settled until the following Friday.
The race
Max Verstappen had the best seat in the house and lost it before the first lap was out. A power unit problem dropped the Red Bull through the field from second on the grid, and he retired at the end of the opening lap without completing a racing lap. Monaco’s most valuable commodity is the grid slot, and Red Bull’s evaporated in about ninety seconds.
Andrea Kimi Antonelli was never troubled. Out front from lights to flag, he crossed the line 6.271s clear of Lewis Hamilton , who had run a quiet, disciplined race from third and turned it into Ferrari’s second podium of the year.
The chaos arrived late. On lap 56 Lance Stroll crashed at the final corner and brought out the safety car. When the race resumed, Charles Leclerc crashed at the same corner on lap 64, ending his home Grand Prix from fourth on the grid and prompting a red flag while the marshals inspected the track surface. The race restarted from a standing start with the order shuffled and the tyres cold.
Carlos Sainz had two collisions in the minutes after that restart, first with Nico Hülkenberg and then with Franco Colapinto , and parked the Williams with damage on lap 70 after being classified sixteenth. Hulkenberg took a ten-second penalty for the first of them. Lando Norris had already gone, stopping on lap 43 reporting a loss of battery power, which is a modern way to lose a race at a circuit that used to take your gearbox instead.
George Russell had the worst afternoon of anyone still running. He reported engine braking and gear-selection problems, could not find a way past Isack Hadjar , picked up a five-second penalty for speeding in the pit lane, and then collected a drive-through for failing to serve it correctly. Sixth on the grid, twelfth at the flag, nothing scored, and a championship lead handed further away.
The podium that took five days
Pierre Gasly crossed the line third, drove an excellent race from ninth, and was then dropped to seventh by two separate five-second pit-lane speeding penalties. Alpine petitioned for a Right of Review. On 12 June, five days after the race, the stewards found the pit-lane speed calculation had used an incorrect distance measurement, rescinded both penalties and reinstated him to third. McLaren and Red Bull appealed; Mercedes lodged its own petition and withdrew it on 18 June.
It stands as Gasly’s sixth career podium and his first since São Paulo in 2024, and it is Alpine’s only visit to the rostrum since that afternoon.
Further back the penalties cascaded. Sergio Pérez took a ten-second post-race penalty for being out of position at the standing restart, which cost Cadillac what would have been their first Formula 1 point and promoted Fernando Alonso to tenth. From twenty-first on the grid, that is Aston Martin’s first point of 2026. Arvid Lindblad came seventh from fifteenth in a strong afternoon for the rookie, with Liam Lawson sixth ahead of him.
The weekend also marked McLaren’s 1,000th Grand Prix entry, sixty years after the team made its debut at this circuit in 1966.
The DNFs
- Max Verstappen - lap 1, power unit, Red Bull
- Valtteri Bottas - lap 15, brakes, Cadillac
- Oliver Bearman - lap 27, mechanical, Haas
- Lando Norris - lap 43, battery power, McLaren
- Lance Stroll - lap 56, crash at the final corner, Aston Martin
- Charles Leclerc - lap 64, crash at the final corner, Ferrari
The championship
Twenty-five more points for the leader and none for the man who was second in the table pushes the gap to 66, the largest it has been all season. Lewis Hamilton inherits second on 90, one clear of George Russell , which is the first time in 2026 the number two Mercedes has not been the closest challenger. Charles Leclerc stays fourth on 75 despite scoring nothing, and Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri are locked together on 58.
Five wins from six, four poles, and a lead that has grown after every round since March. Barcelona is next, and unlike Monte Carlo it has never been kind to a car that is merely well driven.