Round Eight of this year’s Formula One (F1) season took place Sunday in Monte Carlo, Monaco at the Circuit de Monaco. Charles Leclerc from Scuderia Ferrari took pole position during Qualifying on Saturday and earned the sixth win of his career and his first ever in his home country after leading all 78 laps of the race.
Leclerc decreased his gap to the leader of the 2024 world championship, Max Verstappen from Red Bull Racing, to 31 points, with Verstappen beginning and ending the race in P6. Piastri is currently P6 in the world championship, 36 points behind Perez, who fell to P5 behind both Sainz and Piastri’s teammate, Lando Norris.
Leclerc had held pole position in Monaco twice before in 2021 and 2022, but had never converted these into victories and never finished on the podium in his home race before Sunday.
“It’s a very good feeling for sure that was important for the team and important for Charles,” said Fred Vasseur, team principal of Ferrari, said. “It was an important milestone also, for him.”
“It’s my home race, it’s the race that made me dream of becoming a Formula 1 driver one day,” Leclerc said. “It’s the race I used to watch with my dad that has done absolutely everything for me to get to where I am today. I feel like I did not only accomplish my own dream but also the one of my father.”
Leclerc’s father passed away in 2017 when the driver was racing in Formula 2.
Oscar Piastri from McLaren ended in second position (P2), the same position he qualified in, bringing home his first podium of the season. He was followed by Leclerc’s teammate, Carlos Sainz, who finished P3. With a minimal amount of overtakes and pit stops in the narrow streets of Monte Carlo, this race was the first in F1 history to end with the top ten drivers in the same order they started in.
The event had two standing starts after a red flag put a stop to the race on the first lap due to a collision between Kevin Magnussen and Nico Hulkenberg from Haas F1 Team and Sergio Perez from Red Bull Racing. The three cars retired from the race alongside Esteban Ocon from Alpine F1 Team, who suffered damage after a collision from his teammate. This meant only sixteen out of twenty drivers finished the race.
Round nine of the 2024 F1 season will take place at 1 p.m. Sunday, June 9 at the Circuit Gilles-Villeneuve in Montreal, Canada.
