Kimi Antonelli dominated to chalk up his fifth-successive victory during a chaotic red-flagged Monaco Grand Prix, amid more strife for George Russell, and drama elsewhere. Autoweek recaps the main talking points.Antonelli absolutely flawlessAmid the incidents, the time penalties, the crashes and the complaints, Kimi Antonelli was simply serene at the front of the field. Antonelli—for once this season—nailed the all-important start and then pulled away at a rate of knots, holding a near half-minute lead when the Safety Car was deployed for Lance Stroll’s accident at the final corner. A crash for third-placed Charles Leclerc at the same turn in advance of the restart prompted the race to be suspended, with the FIA inspecting debris from broken up tarmac that was recently resurfaced, and that amplified the pressure on Antonelli. But at the standing restart Antonelli was once more perfect and he reeled off the remaining laps to become Monaco’s youngest-ever winner. It was a Grand Chelem for Antonelli, having led all 78 laps from pole position, including the fastest lap, and it was his fifth grand prix victory on the bounce. He now leads the championship over Lewis Hamilton by a whopping 66 points. A dejected Charles Leclerc.“It’s been an incredible weekend, an incredible race,” said Antonelli. “It was one of those days where we had incredible pace and it was just coming all so naturally. The car was feeling incredible and it was just giving me the confidence to push, so it was a very enjoyable day.”Hamilton made it back-to-back podiums, his third of the season, as his renaissance with Ferrari continues. “I can’t believe that I’m second in the championship, and I’m really happy and thankful for that,” said Hamilton. “I couldn’t have done that without this team, without the reliability that we have, and also with [Team Principal] Fred [Vasseur]. “Fred has been awesome in supporting me. I think last year was really tough for both of us and [I’ve been] begging him for certain changes, and he pulled through and he did those, and now I’m seeing the fruits of that and I’m able to finally deliver for them. I think it’s still very early days in the season, so we just have to keep chasing.”Hamilton’s podium came on a bittersweet day for Ferrari amid Leclerc’s crash, which eliminated him from third, the culmination of weekend-long brake problems. “The rear brakes were not working at all, so I don’t know if there was an issue there, or if it’s the inconsistency I get, and the front delivered a lot more than what it should, so that’s what happened,” Leclerc said. Vasseur agreed that “something was clearly not working as it should,” and that a remedy will be sought in time for the upcoming round in Barcelona. Worse than a worse-case scenario for RussellGeorge Russell looked the odds-on favorite for the world title after his commanding victory at the opening round in Australia, but since then his season has unravelled. Russell already arrived in Monaco 43 points behind Antonelli, but he is now not even the 19-year-old’s closest opponent in the standings. George Russell.Russell, who struggled with the W17 throughout qualifying, had climbed his way from sixth to fourth, but faced a five-second time penalty after speeding in the pit lane by 0.1 km/h. Ordinarily, that would be an inconvenience but not a disaster, yet during the Safety Car period, Mercedes did not serve the penalty during Russell’s pit stop. The punishment for failing to serve a penalty correctly is a slam-dunk drive-through penalty, which Russell was duly issued, and the close nature of the field during the late restart meant he plummeted from fourth to 13th position. It means that Russell, who is still searching for answers for his overall lack of pace, trails Antonelli by 68 points – almost three grands prix worth of points after just six events. “Two weekends in a row, 40 points down the drain,” Russell said. “Yesterday was a bad day for me, and I take [that], I accept that, but the result of the last two races… I wish I could take some responsibility for the car breaking down in Canada or the penalties today, but it’s been completely outside of my control, and that is an incredibly difficult pill to swallow. I don’t ever really believe in good luck or bad luck, but when I look at the season as a whole: leading the race in Canada, break down, I could have been on the podium today, zero points, leading the race in Japan, safety car came out 10 seconds after a pit stop. The whole season could look totally different.”Toto Wolff.Mercedes boss Toto Wolff accepted that it was “clearly our mistake” not to serve Russell’s penalty when he came into the pits, and the Briton explained the situation. “I was meant to be staying on track, but then the FIA ordered the cars through pit lane,” Russell said. “I was asking the team, am I stopping for tires or not? I didn't get an answer, but I saw my set of tires there. Everything just happened too quickly, and I guess the mechanics didn't get the message that they had to leave the car for five seconds. Then I was on the radio saying I'm willing to serve the penalty the next lap because I had a 20-second gap to Gasly behind me, but the rules say, you know, we didn't serve the penalty correctly, and the punishment's a drive through. I probably, with the software glitch, probably gained one tenth of a second in the whole pit lane and lost 13 positions.”Alpine requests review amid speeding dramas Five drivers from four different teams were issued time penalties for pit lane speeding, an unusually high rate compared to normal, and the majority of those were just 0.1 km/h above the 60 km/h. It is a black-and-white sanction, but the high rate of drivers transgressing is believed to be due to some drivers marginally cutting the white line in the pit lane by the exit, due to its unique layout. That shortens the distance drivers take and with the average speed monitored by several timing loops—rather than the actual peak speed—the lesser time meant the limit was marginally breached. Pierre Gasly was twice pinged for the transgression, at 0.1 km/h and 0.4 km/h above, and the Alpine driver was left broken by the pair of penalties, which relegated him from third-on-the-road to seventh, having chipped forwards from ninth on the grid. Pierre Gasly in the pits.When convening with the media post-race, a devastated Gasly paused for 15 seconds before offering: “I don’t think there’s anything that could hurt me more now, 10 years I’m f***ing working my a*** off for this kind of moment,” he said, calmly and slowly. “We did everything right today, standing on that podium in front of all the fans that turn up and these are the type of moments that… for me can’t be taken away from us by… unfair, er, reasons, because what’s going on right now is not right.”Alpine confirmed post-race that it has requested a right of review into the penalty, the timeframe of which has not been determined. “I really hope the right outcome can be made,” Gasly posted on social media. “We will fight for it with my team.”Isack Hadjar, who had been passed by Gasly at the late standing restart, benefited from his compatriot’s misfortune to score his first podium with Red Bull. Hadjar had battled power unit problems for the majority of the race and had ceded position to Russell through the pit stop phase, only to move ahead after the Mercedes driver’s penalty woes. More woes for 2025’s top twoLast year in Monaco Lando Norris converted pole position into a victory in what turned out to be his title-winning campaign, where he was pushed all the way across the season by four-time champion Max Verstappen. This year they were mere footnotes to the grand prix. Verstappen had a shot at victory from a season-best second on the grid but engine problems from the outset meant the Dutchman didn’t even get off the line, and brought the car into the pits at the end of the first lap.Verstappen, whose apartment complex overlooks the Portier corner, quipped that at least he only had a short journey back home. Norris dropped behind Gasly at the start and harassed the Alpine driver, only to suffer from a misfire, before eventually and terminally losing speed. It marked the first back-to-back retirements in Norris’ Formula 1 career, and his third non-finish of a campaign in which he has had just one grand prix—Miami—without reliability gremlins afflicting his weekend. F1 Grand Prix of Monaco“We faced issues from Friday that had the team working until 4 a.m. into Saturday to get the car back on track, only to encounter another problem in the race,” Norris said. “It’s tough and frustrating for everyone because we’re putting in a huge effort to improve, but at the moment reliability is getting the better of us.”The ray of light for Norris is his failed power unit was already in the last race of its cycle, minimizing the impact on his allocation going forward, but the reigning champ is already 98 points off the lead.
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