The 2024 Monaco Grand Prix (officially known as the Formula 1 Grand Prix de Monaco 2024) was a Formula One motor race held on 26 May 2024, at the Circuit de Monaco in Monaco. It was the eighth round of the 2024 Formula One World Championship. The race was won by Monégasque Charles Leclerc, his first victory since the 2022 Austrian Grand Prix and his first victory at home, ahead of Oscar Piastri and Ferrari teammate Carlos Sainz, who completed the podium.
Leclerc became the first Monégasque driver since Louis Chiron in 1931 to win his home Grand Prix, as well as the first Monégasque driver to win the Monaco Grand Prix as a Formula One World Championship event. The Grand Prix also marked the first race in the history of the Formula One World Championship to have the top ten drivers finish the race in grid-order, and the first since the 2020 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix to have the top 3 drivers who completed the podium.
Background The event was held at the Circuit de Monaco in Monaco for the 81st time in the circuit's history, across the weekend of 24–26 May. The Grand Prix was the eighth round of the 2024 Formula One World Championship and the 70th running of the Monaco Grand Prix as a round of the Formula One World Championship.
Championship standings before the race Going into the weekend, Max Verstappen led the Drivers' Championship with 161 points, 48 points ahead of Charles Leclerc in second, and 54 ahead of his teammate Sergio Pérez in third. Red Bull Racing, with 267 points, led the Constructors' Championship from Ferrari and McLaren, who were second and third with 212 and 154 points, respectively.
Entrants
The drivers and teams were the same as the season entry list with no additional stand-in drivers for the race.
Tyre choices
Tyre supplier Pirelli brought the C3, C4, and C5 tyre compounds (the softest three in their range) designated hard, medium, and soft, respectively, for teams to use at the event.
Practice Three free practice sessions were held for the event. The first free practice session was held on 24 May 2024, at 13:30 local time (UTC+2), and was topped by Lewis Hamilton of Mercedes ahead of Oscar Piastri of McLaren and Hamilton's teammate George Russell. A brief red flag was observed when debris was scattered across turn 1 after the Sauber of Zhou Guanyu made contact with the wall. The second free practice session was held on the same day, at 17:00 local time, and was topped by Charles Leclerc of Ferrari ahead of Hamilton and Fernando Alonso of Aston Martin. The third free practice session was held on 25 May 2024, at 12:30 local time, and was topped by Leclerc ahead of Max Verstappen of Red Bull Racing and Hamilton. A red flag was observed after the Sauber of Valtteri Bottas struck the wall at the swimming pool section, causing suspension damage.
Qualifying Qualifying was held on 25 May 2024, at 16:00 local time (UTC+2).
Qualifying report The track conditions throughout the qualifying segments were warm and sunny. Fernando Alonso, Logan Sargeant, Sergio Pérez, Valterri Bottas, and Zhou Guanyu were eliminated in Q1. Esteban Ocon, Nico Hülkenberg, Daniel Ricciardo, Lance Stroll, and Kevin Magnussen were eliminated in Q2.
Charles Leclerc took pole position for his home race, his third career pole in Monaco. Oscar Piastri qualified in second, 0.154 seconds behind Leclerc. Carlos Sainz Jr. qualified in third, with Lando Norris and George Russell in fourth and fifth, respectively. Max Verstappen brushed the wall at exit of Sainte Dévote in Q3 and qualified in sixth. Lewis Hamilton, Yuki Tsunoda, Alexander Albon, and Pierre Gasly completed the top ten qualifiers for the race. After an investigation, both Haas drivers Hülkenberg and Magnussen were disqualified from qualifying for breaching the technical regulations.
Qualifying classification DriverConstructorQ1Q2Q3116 Charles LeclercFerrari1:11.5841:10.8251:10.2701281 Oscar PiastriMcLaren-Mercedes1:11.5001:10.7561:10.4242355 Carlos Sainz Jr.Ferrari1:11.5431:11.0751:10.518344 Lando NorrisMcLaren-Mercedes1:11.7601:10.7321:10.5424563 George RussellMercedes1:11.4921:10.9291:10.543561 Max VerstappenRed Bull Racing-Honda RBPT1:11.7111:10.7451:10.5676744 Lewis HamiltonMercedes1:11.5281:11.0561:10.6217822 Yuki TsunodaRB-Honda RBPT1:11.8521:11.1061:10.8588923 Alexander AlbonWilliams-Mercedes1:11.6231:11.2161:10.94891010 Pierre GaslyAlpine-Renault1:11.7141:10.8961:11.311101131 Esteban OconAlpine-Renault1:11.8871:11.285N/A11123 Daniel RicciardoRB-Honda RBPT1:11.7851:11.482N/A121318 Lance Stroll1:11.7281:11.563N/A131414 Fernando Alonso1:12.019N/AN/A14152 Logan SargeantWilliams-Mercedes1:12.020N/AN/A151611 Sergio PérezRed Bull Racing-Honda RBPT1:12.060N/AN/A161777 Valtteri BottasKick Sauber-Ferrari1:12.512N/AN/A171824 Zhou GuanyuKick Sauber-Ferrari1:13.028N/AN/A1827Haas-Ferrari1:11.8761:11.440N/A1920Haas-Ferrari1:11.8321:11.725N/A20107% time: 1:16.496 Source: Notes – Nico Hülkenberg and Kevin Magnussen initially qualified 12th and 15th, respectively, but were subsequently disqualified because their DRS was found to not conform with the technical regulations. They were permitted to race at the stewards' discretion.
Race The race was held on 26 May 2024, at 15:00 local time (UTC+2), and was run for 78 laps.
Race report The race was red-flagged on lap 1 after a crash between Sergio Pérez, Nico Hülkenberg and Kevin Magnussen, all of whom retired. Magnussen had brought his car into Pérez's line, which would see the two make contact. Hülkenberg tried to pass the crash, but his rear was struck by Pérez's car. Zhou Guanyu, who was behind the three drivers, slowed down to avoid crashing. The crash resulted in heavy damage to the barriers and a large amount of debris being spread across the first corners. Red Bull estimated a £2.5-3 million cost to repair Pérez's car. Meanwhile, Leclerc's teammate Carlos Sainz Jr. picked up a puncture after contact with second-placed Oscar Piastri and dropped down to sixteenth, running wide into the casino corner, and as the Alpines exited Portier, Esteban Ocon squeezed himself into the path of Pierre Gasly, pitching his own car upward. Ocon, who admitted responsibility for the incident, retired during the red flag period. The stewards investigated the Magnussen and Ocon incidents; deeming the former to be a racing incident, while the latter would later be given a five-place grid penalty for the following Canadian Grand Prix. Sainz, who was running in sixteenth, benefitted from the red flag facilitating a grid reset, as Zhou had not passed the first timing sector before the race was suspended.
The early red flag was a big deciding factor for the rest of the race strategy - drivers were able to swap to a second tyre compound during the red flag, eliminating the need for pit stops for the rest of the race. Of the top ten, only Hamilton and Verstappen made further pit stops after gaining a wide enough lead over Tsunoda to do so without losing track position. The resulting no-stop strategy required a very slow pace from the drivers in order to manage tyres, with Piastri commenting that at one point the pace was "slower than Formula 2." The following season, the FIA passed a new rule requiring all drivers to run three different sets of tyres at Monaco alongside the usual rules of two different compounds, with the explicit goal of making the race more entertaining.
Leclerc kept the lead following the restart to win the race ahead of Piastri, who scored his first podium of the season for McLaren, Sainz, and Lando Norris. This was Leclerc's first race win since the 2022 Austrian Grand Prix, and Ferrari's first victory in Monaco since Sebastian Vettel took the win in the 2017 edition of the race. Leclerc became the first Monégasque driver since Louis Chiron in 1931 to win his home Grand Prix, and the first to win it as a Formula One World Championship event.
The result enabled Leclerc to reduce the points deficit to Verstappen to 31 points. Following his first-lap-retirement which caused an early red flag, Sergio Pérez was demoted from third to fifth, as Lando Norris and Carlos Sainz Jr. advanced one position each in the standings. Ferrari closed the gap in the World Constructors' Championship to 24 points over Red Bull, with McLaren nearly 100 points behind Red Bull in third.
Race classification DriverConstructorLapsTime/RetiredPoints 1 16 Charles Leclerc Ferrari 78 2:23:15.554 1 25 281 Oscar Piastri McLaren-Mercedes 78 +7.1522 18 355 Carlos Sainz Jr. Ferrari 78 +7.5853 15 4 4 Lando Norris McLaren-Mercedes 78 +8.650 4 12 563 George Russell Mercedes 78 +13.3095 10 6 1 Max Verstappen Red Bull Racing-Honda RBPT 78 +13.853 6 8 744 Lewis Hamilton Mercedes 78 +14.9087 7 822 Yuki Tsunoda RB-Honda RBPT77 +1 lap8 4 923 Alexander Albon Williams-Mercedes77 +1 lap9 2 1010 Pierre GaslyAlpine-Renault77 +1 lap10 1 1114 Fernando Alonso Aston Martin Aramco-Mercedes76 +2 laps14 123 Daniel Ricciardo RB-Honda RBPT76 +2 laps12 1377 Valtteri Bottas Kick Sauber-Ferrari76 +2 laps17 1418 Lance Stroll 76 +2 laps13 152 Logan SargeantWilliams-Mercedes76 +2 laps15 1624 Zhou GuanyuKick Sauber-Ferrari76 +2 laps18 31 Esteban Ocon Alpine-Renault0 11 11 Sergio Pérez Red Bull Racing-Honda RBPT0 Collision16 27 Haas-Ferrari0 Collision19 20 Haas-Ferrari0 Collision20Fastest lap: Lewis Hamilton (Mercedes) – 1:14.165 (lap 63)Source: Notes – Includes one point for fastest lap.
Championship standings after the race
Drivers' Championship standings Driver Points1 Max Verstappen1692 Charles Leclerc138 13 Lando Norris113 14 Carlos Sainz Jr.108 25 Sergio Pérez107Source:
Constructors' Championship standings Constructor Points1 Red Bull Racing-Honda RBPT2762 Ferrari2523 McLaren-Mercedes1844 Mercedes96544Source:
Note: Only the top five positions are included for both sets of standings.
See also 2024 Monte Carlo Formula 2 round 2024 Monte Carlo Formula 3 round
References
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