Monaco Grand Prix 2024 Review: Charles Leclerc breaks home curse, takes the win

After suffering some of the worst luck at home, Charles Leclerc finally triumphed in the weekend as he put in a calm and composed drive to win the 2024 Monaco Grand Prix.

McLaren’s Oscar Piastri finished second ahead of Leclerc’s teammate, Carlos Sainz, in what was quite a dull race apart from some Lap 1 action. 

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It was a chaotic start off the line as Sergio Pérez, who squeezed Kevin Magnussen right into the barriers, which saw the latter clip the former’s right rear, sending him right into the wall and absolutely wrecking the Red Bull car and the barriers. The Red Bull driver also took out Magnussen’s teammate, Nico Hülkenberg, as he spun out.

After a delayed pause, racing resumed with Leclerc leading the remaining 16 cars off the line, with Alpine’s Esteban Ocon also retiring after coming together with his teammate, Pierre Gasly. 

Leclerc maintained the lead as there was barely any movement behind him on the tracks of Monaco. The race saw its first bit of action post the crash on Lap 13 as the Sauber cars came in for their pit stops.

By Lap 25, Leclerc maintained a solid lead over Piastri with Sainz, with Lando Norris and George Russell rounding out the top five positions. As one would expect, there was barely any movement among the top six as we entered Lap 50, with the order remaining the same since the restart. 

Reigning World Champion Max Verstappen finally got close to some overtaking action as he was pushing Mercedes’ George Russell as we entered the 62nd lap. Russell held off Verstappen, while Piastri saw off Sainz, which was all the action one could get as Leclerc breezed to a comfortable race win in front of his home crowd. 

While Leclerc, Piastri, and Sainz finished on the podium, we had Norris, Russell, Verstappen, Lewis Hamilton, Yuki Tsunoda, Alex Albon, and Pierre Gasly rounding out the top 10 places in that order.

The 2024 Monaco Grand Prix win sees Leclerc cut down Verstappen’s lead to 31 points in the Drivers’ Standings, while Sainz is now just five points behind Norris.

Red Bull remain top of the Constructors’ Standings, while Ferrari are now 24 points behind them in second place with 252 points. 

Racing will resume in two weeks’ time as the grid moves to Canada for the 2024 Canadian Grand Prix.