With the monkey finally off his back, Charles Leclerc allowed himself the luxury of tears of joy as he climbed from his car, victorious at last in his home Monaco Grand Prix. There were thoughts of his family, joy and relief among the emotions, with Formula One as a whole sharing the latter after Red Bull’s Sergio Pérez survived an horrific accident on the opening lap.
This is Leclerc’s sixth attempt to win the race and now that the 26‑year‑old has done so he can consider his Monaco curse truly lifted, Âbecoming the first Monegasque to win here since the Formula One world championship began in 1950 by beating McLaren’s Oscar Piastri into second and his ÂFerrari teammate, Carlos Sainz, into third.
Charles Leclerc wins F1 Monaco GP after avoiding ‘monster accident’ – as it happened
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Leclerc was unsurprisingly joyous as were the home crowd whose allegiance was clear, not least in a huge portrait of Leclerc painted as a saint hanging from one of the yachts that throng the harbour in Monte Carlo. He is rightly proud and it was doubtless enjoyable to thread the needle through the streets of the principality in the cockpit. Yet the race he won was a torpid affair to watch. Dictated by tyre management at a torturously slow pace and with passing impossible, the cars circled round in an endless procession, Âoffering neither interest nor any sense of jeopardy, nor indeed barely a sniff of actual racing.
With the top 10 finishing in exactly their grid order, there was nary even an attempt at an overtake among them – Monaco, the so-called jewel in the Formula One crown, proving once more to be patently unfit for purpose in the modern era.
What drama there was occurred in the frightening opening‑lap crash which, in turn, was fundamental to how the race evolved, as well as being a salutary reminder of how danÂgerous the sport remains.
