F1 Monaco Grand Prix 2026 Recap
Kimi Antonelli keeps his cool amidst chaos in the Principality to take the win in Monaco
Kimi Antonelli picked up his fifth win of the Formula One 2026 season after keeping a cool head on an eventful afternoon in Monte Carlo to win the Monaco Grand Prix 2026. Lewis Hamilton gave Ferrari a podium while his teammate and home boy, Charles Leclerc’s wretched luck in Monaco continued as Leclerc failed to see the chequered flag. The race saw a host of penalties and retirements as a total of seven drivers retired with Red Bull’s Max Verstappen, who started second, failing to see the end of the second lap itself. With Pierre Gasly picking up a penalty, Isack Hadjar picked up his first-ever podium for Red Bull. Antonelli’s win in Monaco also makes him the youngest ever driver to win in Monaco in the history of Formula One at 19 years of age.
Lewis Hamilton’s second place finish also means that he moves to second place in the Drivers’ Standing, 66 points behind Kimi Antonelli while George Russell is in third place and is 68 points behind Antonelli.
Kimi Antonelli started brilliantly as the lights went off but it was Max Verstappen’s Red Bull stalling at the start and just didn’t move off the line which saw the Red Bull star drop right to the back of the grid. Along with Antonelli, the Ferraris started well as well, with both making up a fortunate place at the start. Verstappen was called into the pits by his team and the quadruple world champion became the first retiree of the race on the second lap itself while his teammate, Isack Hadjar was running strong in fourth place, picking up a place at the start. Antonelli by the fifth lap had left the Ferraris in his wake as he was almost four seconds clear of Hamilton in second place with Leclerc a further three behind.
Sergio Pérez was handed a drive-through penalty on lap 11 for being out of position at the race start, which dropped the Mexican to P18. On the track, there was action between Hadjar and George Russell for P4 with the only remaining Red Bull putting in a strong drive early on to try to score maximum points for his team. On lap 18, the race saw its second retiree as Cadillac’s Valtteri Bottas due to his brakes heating up excessively. Hadjar, meanwhile, reported an engine problem to his team, as Russell was all over him. Antonelli at the front, was more than nine seconds clear of Hamilton by lap 25 as he was way clear of both Ferraris with Hadjar’s battle with Russell making sure Leclerc was over a pit stop clear of Russell.
Hadjar and Russell’s fight was the highlight in the middle phase as despite Hadjar being the slowest car on the grid because of his engine troubles, he was keeping Russell behind while Lewis Hamilton became the first of the top 10 to pit on lap 29 with the veteran Ferrari driver moving to the Hards and rejoined the track in third place, behind Leclerc, who inherited second. Haas’ Ollie Bearman came into the pits on lap 31 and became the third retiree while Russell came into the pits the following lap after failing to get past a struggling Hadjar and the Mercedes driver rejoined in P8. Red Bull responded immediately to call in Hadjar but he came out just behind Russell as Mercedes made the undercut work. The issues on track kept on popping up as on lap 34, Lando Norris informed his team of a power unit issue.
Leclerc finally came in for his stop on lap 36 and he came out behind his teammate after a relatively slow stop from the Ferrari crew, which was over three seconds. While Antonelli stopped the following lap and came out in front, 12 seconds clear of Hamilton. Hamilton and Russell meanwhile were both handed five-second penalties for speeding in the pitlane. As there was no change in the top five, it was McLaren using Norris in P6 to hold up Russell to let Piastri build up a gap to the Mercedes driver with Piastri, Gasly and Norris in fourth, fifth and sixth yet to pit with the race entering lap 45. Russell finally got past Norris on lap 45, breezing past the McLaren coming out of the tunnel. Norris eventually retired as the team deemed his power unit issue to be critical.
Gasly finally pitted from fifth on lap 46 and the Frenchman rejoined the track in P7. As the race crossed lap 50, Antonelli was more than 20 seconds clear while Piastri was the final driver in the top 8 to pit and he rejoined in sixth place. On track, the Williams tried to use Alex Albon to back up the grid on the fringes of the points but Arvid Lindblad moved into the points places on lap 50 after getting past Albon at the Nouvelle chicane with Nico Hülkenberg all over the back of Albon as the Williams struggled to keep up with those around him. While there was action in the middle of the field, on the fringes of the points, Antonelli was breezing up front and he lapped his teammate, Russell, on lap 53.
With 20 laps to go, Antonelli was almost 30 seconds clear of Hamilton, although he had informed his team that his engine felt weird while a host of drivers were handed five second penalties for speeding in the pit lane. The race saw its first Yellow Flag on lap 60 as Lance Stroll went into the barriers at the final corner and it brought out the Safety Car eventually. Both the Ferraris immediately dove into the pits as did a couple of other cars and the race director asked all the cars to go through the pit lane while Stroll’s car was removed from the track. Mercedes double stacked their cars as well which saw Hadjar make up a place on Russell who was the second Mercedes to stop and lost out. Most of the cars switched to the Soft compound. Russell meanwhile, surprisingly was the only one who received a pit lane speeding penalty who did not serve his penalty during the pit stops. The Safety Car came in on lap 65 and Leclerc instantly went into the barriers at the final corner as the Safety Car came right back out with the Ferrari driver voicing his frustrations to his team about his brakes. Leclerc crashing out meant that Isack Hadjar moved into the podium places while the race was Red Flagged with the track breaking up in the final sector with 10 laps to go.
After a stoppage of over 40 minutes, racing resumed with a standing start with 8 laps to go. Hamilton got the better start off the line but Antonelli managed to keep the lead as racing resumed and behind the top two, it was George Russell and Pierre Gasly easing past a slow Isack Hadjar. There was a small incident at the hairpin and Portier as Nico Hülkenberg and Franco Colapinto clipped Carlos Sainz while saw the Williams driver fall through the field and become the seventh retiree of the race. Russell was called into the pit by his team to serve his drive through penalty which saw him fall back to P14. With three laps to go, Antonelli was 2.4s clear of Hamilton with Gasly a further 12 seconds behind.
Antonelli managed to keep his cool to pick up his fifth win of the season and fifth in a row while Hamilton secured a second place finish for Ferrari. Gasly finished third on the track but penalties meant that he fell down the grid with Isack Hadjar picking up his first Red Bull penalty, although he is also under investigation post race for a Red Flag infringement but was cleared later on. Piastri finished fourth ahead of Liam Lawson, Arvid Lindblad, Gasly, Alex Albon, Esteban Ocon and Sergio Pérez with the Mexican moving up to P10 after a late 10-second penalty for Nico Hülkenberg for his clash with Sainz. Post-race though, Sergio Pérez was handed a 10-second time penalty for being out of the grid at the start which meant that Fernando Alonso moved up to P10 and scored his and Aston Martin’s first points of the season.
Racing will be back next week as the grid moves to Spain for the first-ever Barcelona-Catalunya Grand Prix.
