F1 Monaco Grand Prix 2026 Recap: Antonelli keeps cool to take win amid Principality chaos

Kimi Antonelli picked up his fifth win of the 2026 Formula One season after keeping a cool head on an eventful afternoon in Monte Carlo to win the Monaco Grand Prix.

Lewis Hamilton gave Ferrari a podium, while his teammate and local lad, Charles Leclerc, saw his wretched luck in Monaco continue as he failed to see the chequered flag.

The race saw a host of penalties and retirements. 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 makes him the youngest driver ever to win in the Principality in the history of Formula One at 19 years of age. Hamilton’s second-place finish, meanwhile, has taken him to second place in the Drivers’ Standings, 66 points behind Antonelli, with George Russell in third place, 68 points behind his Italian teammate.

Kimi Antonelli started brilliantly as the lights went off, but Max Verstappen’s RB22 stalled proceedings 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 Ferrari duo started well as well, both making up a place at the start. Verstappen was called into the pits by his team and 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.

By the fifth lap, Antonelli had left the Ferrari cars in his wake and 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 driver on the grid 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 in Cadillac’s Valtteri Bottas due to his brakes overheating excessively. Hadjar, meanwhile, reported an engine problem to his team, with Russell all over him. At the front, Antonelli was more than nine seconds clear of Hamilton by Lap 25, way clear of both Ferrari drivers, 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. Despite having the slowest car on the grid because of engine troubles, Hadjar was keeping Russell at bay. Lewis Hamilton became the first of the top ten to pit on Lap 29. The veteran Ferrari driver moved to the hards and rejoined the track in third place, behind Leclerc, who inherited P2 from his teammate.

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 rejoined in P8. Red Bull responded immediately by calling in Hadjar, but he came out just behind Russell, with Mercedes making 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 came out behind his teammate after a relatively slow stop from the Ferrari crew, which took over three seconds. Antonelli, meanwhile, stopped the following lap and came out in front, 12 seconds clear of Hamilton.

Hamilton and Russell were both handed five-second penalties for speeding in the pit lane. As there was no change in the top five, it was McLaren using Norris in P6 to hold up Russell to let Oscar Piastri build up a gap, with Piastri, Pierre Gasly, and Norris in fourth, fifth, and sixth, respectively, yet to pit.

Russell finally got past Norris on Lap 45, breezing past him coming out of the tunnel, while Norris ultimately retired as the team deemed his power unit issue to be critical. 

Gasly finally pitted from fifth on Lap 46 and 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 eight to pit and rejoined in sixth. On track, 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, getting past Albon at the Nouvelle Chicane, with Nico Hülkenberg also all over the back of Albon, whose FW48 struggled to keep up with those around him.

While there was action on the fringes of the points places, Antonelli was breezing up front and lapped his teammate on Lap 53. With 20 laps to go, he 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, which brought out the Safety Car. Both Ferrari cars dove into the pits right away, as did a couple of other cars, as the race director asked everyone to go through the pit lane while Stroll’s car was removed from the track.

Mercedes double-stacked their cars, which saw Hadjar make up a place on Russell, who stopped and lost out. Most of the cars switched to the softs. Russell was, surprisingly, the only one who received a pit-lane speeding penalty but did not serve his penalty during the stops.

The Safety Car came in on Lap 65 and Leclerc instantly went into the barriers at the final corner, bringing the Safety Car right back out, with the Monégasque voicing his frustrations to his team about his brakes. Leclerc crashing out saw Hadjar move into the podium places, while the race was red-flagged with the track breaking up in the final sector with ten laps to go.

After a stoppage of over 40 minutes, racing resumed with a standing start with eight laps to go. Hamilton got the better start off the line, but Antonelli managed to keep the lead as racing resumed. Behind the top two, it was Russell and Gasly easing past a slow Isack Hadjar.

There was a small incident at the hairpin and Portier as Hülkenberg and Franco Colapinto clipped Carlos Sainz, which saw the Williams driver fall through the field and become the seventh retiree of the race. Russell was called into the pits by his team to serve his drive-through penalty, which saw him fall back to P14. With three laps to go, Antonelli was 2.4 seconds 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, his 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. Hadjar also under investigation post race for a red flag infringement, though he was cleared later on.

Elsewhere, Piastri finished fourth ahead of Liam Lawson, Arvid Lindblad, Gasly, Alex Albon, Esteban Ocon, and Sergio Pérez, the last of whom moved up to P10 after a late ten-second penalty for Hülkenberg for his clash with Sainz.

After the race, Sergio Pérez was handed a ten-second time penalty for being out of the grid at the start, which meant that Fernando Alonso moved up to P10, thus registering 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.