(Photo by Alex Bierens de Haan/LAT Images)

F1 Review: Kimi Antonelli Dominates To Win Wild Monaco GP, George Russell in Tatters

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Mercedes’ Kimi Antonelli was untouchable at Monaco, capping a dominant weekend with his first Monaco Grand Prix win, becoming the youngest Monaco victor.

Antonelli easily held off his closest race competitor, Lewis Hamilton, while his closest rival in the championship, Mercedes teammate George Russell, finished 13th after a number of penalties and some questionable driving.

“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.”

By starting on pole, leading every lap, posting the fastest lap, and winning the race, Antonelli completed the “Grand Slam” of F1.

Red Bull’s Isack Hadjar posted his first podium, finishing third, with his success tempering Red Bull’s dismay after Max Verstappen retired after one lap.

McLaren’s Oscar Piastri was fourth, followed by the Racing Bull’s duo of Liam Lawson and Arvid Lindblad, in fifth and sixth, respectively. Alpine’s Pierre Gasly finished third on the track, but penalty time added to his finish dropped him to seventh.

Williams Racing’s Alex Albon finished eighth, Haas’ Esteban Ocon was ninth, and Aston Martin’s Fernando Alonso fell into a point due to Sergio Perez’s 10-second penalty for being out of position on the final restart.

In the driver standings, Antonelli leads Hamilton by a whopping 66 points, 156 to 90. Russell is two points back of Hamilton with 88. 

In the constructors standings, Mercedes leads Ferrari 244 to 165. McLaren holds third with 118 points. 

The Race

Antonelli blazed to his best start of the year and easily led into Turn 1, while Verstappen stalled and dropped to last. Verstappen pulled his disabled Red Bull into the pits after one lap as Antonelli distanced himself from the trailing Ferraris of Hamilton and Leclerc.

The young Italian’s lead over Hamilton was over five seconds by lap 10, and Antonelli was already in total control. His teammate Russell, having survived a start infringement investigation, sat in fifth and was looking for a way around the Red Bull of Hadjar.

Twenty laps in, and Antonelli’s lead was still a healthy four seconds over Hamilton. With pit stops looming, Antonelli and Mercedes had a cushion that allowed them the luxury of reacting to Ferrari’s pit decision for Hamilton.

Hamilton pitted on lap 29 for hard tires and came out in third, 15 seconds behind Charles Leclerc. Anything less than a second for Hamilton would be a massive disappointment. That disappointment came a few laps later, when Hamilton was slapped with a five-second penalty for speeding in pit lane. That dimmed Hamilton’s hopes for second place, but a podium was very much likely.   

Leclerc pitted on lap 36 and emerged in third, 10 seconds behind Hamilton. Leclerc’s job was simple for the remainder of the race — stay within five seconds of Hamilton to secure second.

Antonelli pitted on lap 37, and a speedy 2.3-second stop removed what little drama, if any, was left as to the outcome of the race.

Up front, Antonelli’s lead was so substantial that he was totally ignored by the F1 broadcast. That is, until he radioed his team on lap 57 to say he might have an engine issue. Mercedes quickly told him there was no issue. And, as the championship leader continued to reel off fastest laps, Mercedes basically advised him to “slow down,” as there was no need to push.

Bad news for Antonelli arrived on lap 60, when Lance Stroll beached his Aston Martin into the barriers at Antony Noghes, bringing out a safety car. Most of the front-runners pitted for soft tires, and Antonelli was left with a little bit of work to do before securing his first Monaco win. 

The safety car came in on lap 65, and Antonelli maintained the lead until another safety car was deployed after Leclerc crashed in the very spot Stroll had earlier. Then, the session was red-flagged to allow stewards to clear the marbles and inspect the track at the site of Leclerc’s crash.

What seemed like a sure win for Antonelli was in a little doubt. If the race resumed with a flying start, Antonelli could easily maintain the lead. A standing start would open the door for Hamilton to steal the win. 

After a lengthy delay, the race restarted with a standing start, and again, Antonelli outgunned Hamilton on the start. Game over.

Antonelli took the checkered flag with a six-second cushion over Hamilton.     

The Bad 

Are George Russell’s championship hopes dead and gone? Russell is now 68 points behind Antonelli in the drivers championship, and Russell admittedly says he feels lost in his Mercedes. Russell seems to have lost confidence in his car and himself.

Now would be a good time for Toto Wolff to sit Russell down, tell him to reset, put his head down, and just worry about himself. I think most F1 observers would deem Russell capable of doing all of those things, except the “worry about himself” part.

Russell spends too much of his time commenting on other drivers’ missteps and possible punishable actions. At some or many points in his life, Russell likely was labeled a “tattletale.” Snitches may not necessarily get stitches, but they do get one thing, and that’s a reputation. 

It was a day to forget for Max Verstappen. Luckily, he didn’t have much to forget, because he was only on the track long enough to drive his disabled Red Bull back to the pits after a stalled start.

It’s one thing to “Go Dutch;” Verstappen pulled the old “Leave Dutch,” which is quite similar to the “Irish goodbye.” 

Is anything more representative of the superfluously affluent nature of the Monaco Grand Prix than Port Hercule, so full of luxury yachts/mini-cruise ships that you can barely see water? If I were privy to the inside of one of these floating palaces, I’m sure my answer would be “Yes.” 

You can cut the pretentiousness of Monaco’s exclusivity with a salad knife, one properly placed to the right of the dinner knife in a formal table setting, naturally.

Forget the “Grid Walk;” is there a “Yacht Trot?” Does Jolyon Palmer even have the cache to gain entry onto one of these yachts? As long as there was a camera in tow, Palmer would probably be welcomed with open arms into the sphere of the ostentatiously wealthy.

You heard it here first: I predict that, at some point in the near future at Monaco, soulless billionaire Jeff Bezos will announce plans for the Amazon F1 team and will name himself team principal.  

But I will give Monaco this: despite all the wealth and associated greed surrounding the race and the principality, the race is still simply called the “Monaco Grand Prix,” and not the “Petroleum Conglomerate Monaco Grand Prix.” 

Stewards really cracked down on pit lane speeding at Monaco, issuing no less than five speeding penalties. Plus, there were a number of other penalties for exceeding track limits, causing a collision, and for being out of position on a restart. The number of speeding infractions was enough to cause F1 TV announcers to question the accuracy and stringency of F1’s monitoring tools. I’m 100% with them, because I have no “tolerance” for so many penalties.

Cadillac’s Sergio Perez. Goodness, where do I start? If that’s a question posed to Perez, then he’d likely start in the wrong place.

Perez was pinged in Monaco for three infractions, all featuring alarmingly high levels of boneheadedness, with one being more costly than the others. First, he was reprimanded for making a practice start in the wrong position during reconnaissance laps to the grid. Then, he was given a drive-through penalty for parking in the wrong grid position on the original race start.

Finally, Perez was penalized 10 seconds for being out of position on the grid at the restart after the red flag. That penalty dropped Perez from 10th to 15th, and negated what Cadillac thought was their first point in F1.

The Good

Isack Hadjar’s Monaco weekend started with a big crash in Friday’s first free practice session, and ended with an unlikely podium, his first as a Red Bull driver.

Hadjar started fifth, so it’s not like a podium wasn’t a possibility. But it’s how Hadjar reached that podium that makes it unlikely. 

It was surprising that Hadjar even made it to the finish, given his early panicked complaints of not having first gear. We learned that despite not having a first gear, Hadjar could still put his whining into overdrive. Luckily, Red Bull talked Hadjar off the ledge, told him in so many words to “Shut up. The car is fine,” and guided him back to a good mental state. 

Then, Racing Bulls made the bold decision to leave Hadjar out during the second safety car period, which allowed Hadjar to leapfrog Russell in the order. 

Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc signed a two-year contract extension on June 3rd that will keep him at Ferrari through 2028. Good for you, Charles. Now, you’re still contractually obligated not to win a world championship. Ironically, how many times has Leclerc said the words “I didn’t sign up for this” during his tenure with Ferrari?

It’s great to see Ferrari prioritize a talent like Leclerc. So, it was quite surprising to see Ferrari blatantly fail to prioritize Leclerc during the first safety car period. Ferrari double-stacked in the pits, with Hamilton first in line. Amazingly, Leclerc had to wait not only for Hamilton to be serviced but also for Hamilton to serve his five-second penalty.

Now, Ferrari probably had no other option than to pit in that manner, but it’s the optics that are rankling. Has any other driver of Leclerc’s standing been forced to wait in the pits while a teammate served a penalty? I don’t think so.

Ferrari could have first pitted Hamilton and sent Leclerc around for another lap before pitting. After all, Antonelli had to complete another lap before he could pit during that safety car. Leclerc could have done the same. That way, Ferrari could have at least given the impression that they’re not playing favorites to Hamilton. 

Not only did Antonelli dominate the race, he also appears to have rectified and improved his most glaring weakness — his race starts. 

Antonelli has been slow off the line in nearly every race this season, but that was not the case at Monaco. On the race start, Antonelli had the pressure of a combined 11 world championships behind him, in Verstappen and Hamilton, hoping to get the jump on the teenager. Antonelli was unfazed, and his reaction time verified that, as he easily beat Hamilton into the first corner (Verstappen stalled and was not a factor).

Then, after the red flag ended, Antonelli had to repeat it on another standing start, this time with Hamilton, and Ferrari’s vaunted launch prowess (which, by the way, seems to have disappeared), directly behind him. Again, Antonelli calmly started well, and the rest was history.

Antonelli has no weaknesses, and the Mercedes, likewise, has no weaknesses, as long as Antonelli is driving it. Is it too early to crown Antonelli as the 2026 world champion? Probably. The F1 season is long, especially for drivers not named Antonelli.  

Grid Walk Moments

Jolyon Palmer ran into Aston Martin team principal and managing director Adrian Newey, who, given the mighty struggles of his team, is apparently not ashamed to show his face on the F1 grid, much less in public, and much less while wearing Aston Martin gear.

Newey was last seen in the Aston paddock in the season-opening Australian Grand Prix, and you could tell by his demeanor that he wished he’d stayed home. But there’s light at the end of the wind tunnel, Adrian—-Aston Martin scored their first point of the season, thanks to Fernando Alonso, with additional thanks to Sergio Perez’s lack of spatial, as well as general, awareness, McLaren and Red Bull’s lack of reliable engine power, and Ferrari’s lack of brakes.

The Driver

Lewis Hamilton posted his second consecutive runner-up finish and his eighth career podium at Monaco, tying the mark set by the legendary Ayrton Senna. One could say that everything is going well for Hamilton, with the tiny exception that the driver who replaced him at the team that Hamilton left is dominating F1.

If Hamilton’s not second-guessing his decision to leave Mercedes, then he’s probably asking himself if he has the desire, the time, and mental and physical acuity to hang around long enough for Ferrari to produce a championship-capable car. Ferrari’s been chasing that endeavor for a decade.

That being said, Hamilton appears to be happy with the current state of things. And he certainly should not doubt his legacy and longevity, especially not after sharing the cool-down room with Antonelli and Hadjar, two drivers with a combined age of 40, one less than Hamilton’s 41.

And Hamilton was able to share it all with his girlfriend, Kim Kardashian, who was in Monaco to support Hamilton. The two make quite the power couple and are both titans in their respective fields. A certain someone might say Hamilton and Kardashian are the “Kanye West’s of their respective fields.”

F1 Glossary Word Of The Day

*G-Force: also known as “gravitational force,” G-force is the amount of force exerted on an object due to acceleration and/or cornering. “G-Force” may also refer to what Snoop Dogg would be called if he were named an honorary member of the John Force drag racing family.

The Results (Monaco Grand Prix, Circuit de Monaco)

Pos.No.DriverTeamLapsTime / RetiredPts.
112Kimi AntonelliMercedes782:23:31.24325
244Lewis HamiltonFerrari78+6.271s18
36Isack HadjarRed Bull Racing78+23.394s15
481Oscar PiastriMcLaren78+24.261s12
530Liam LawsonRacing Bulls78+26.553s10
641Arvid LindbladRacing Bulls78+29.010s8
710Pierre GaslyAlpine78+30.369s6
823Alexander AlbonWilliams78+33.413s4
931Esteban OconHaas F1 Team78+37.140s2
1014Fernando AlonsoAston Martin78+41.899s1
115Gabriel BortoletoAudi78+42.748s0
1263George RussellMercedes78+43.353s0
1327Nico HulkenbergAudi78+44.102s0
1443Franco ColapintoAlpine78+48.964s0
1511Sergio PerezCadillac78+49.153s0
1655Carlos SainzWilliams70DNF0
NC16Charles LeclercFerrari64DNF0
NC18Lance StrollAston Martin56DNF0
NC1Lando NorrisMcLaren43DNF0
NC87Oliver BearmanHaas F1 Team27DNF0
NC77Valtteri BottasCadillac15DNF0
NC3Max VerstappenRed Bull Racing0DNF0

Note – Colapinto received a five-second time penalty for speeding in the pit lane. Gasly received two five-second time penalties for speeding in the pit lane. Stroll received a five-second time penalty for exceeding track limits. Hulkenberg received a 10-second time penalty for causing a collision. Perez received a 10-second time penalty for being out of position at the restart after the red flag.

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