Kimi Antonelli stretched his winning run to five races by overcoming a late-race restart to see off Lewis Hamilton for a supreme Monaco Grand Prix victory amid wild late scenes at F1’s most-famous race.
And with Mercedes team-mate and chief title rival George Russell finishing outside the points completely after a late drive-through penalty compounded his troubled weekend, the 19-year-old Antonelli now leads the Drivers’ Championship by 66 points after six races of what stands as a 22-race campaign.
Hamilton moves ahead of Russell into second in the standings after finishing second for the second successive race weekend for Ferrari.
The Briton and team-mate Charles Leclerc both jumped Max Verstappen immediately at the start – his Red Bull hitting what quickly turned into race-ending power unit problems – to run second and third, but they could not keep up with the flying Antonelli, who led by over 20 seconds before the first of two late-race Safety Cars.
After a crash for Lance Stroll at the final corner was soon followed by one at the same spot for home hero Leclerc, officials red-flagged the race to assess track break-up issues at that point of the circuit.
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Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc was left furious after he crashed out of his home race in Monaco following the safety car restart.
The race eventually resumed for the final eight laps with a second start from the grid, with Antonelli making no mistake at the start for the second time – this time with Hamilton next to him on the front row – to ensure his first victory in F1’s most legendary race at the second attempt.
On a day when an unusually-high number of drivers – including Hamilton and Russell – were handed five-second penalties for pit-lane speeding, Alpine’s Pierre Gasly dropped out of third due to two such sanctions being applied to his final race time.
That promoted Red Bull’s Isack Hadjar to the podium for the first time, but the Frenchman’s maiden top-three in F1 is also in doubt owing to a post-race probe for an alleged Safety Car infringement.
McLaren’s difficult weekend ended with fourth place for Oscar Piastri but a second successive technical retirement for world champion Lando Norris, last year’s race winner.
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Anthony Davidson was at the SkyPad to explain why George Russell was given a drive-through penalty for not serving a previous speeding penalty.
On a stellar day for Racing Bulls, Liam Lawson was fifth with British teenager Arvid Lindblad sixth ahead of the demoted Gasly and Williams’ Alex Albon.
More to follow…
Formula 1 heads straight to Spain for the Barcelona-Catalunya Grand Prix with live coverage on Sky Sports F1 from this Friday. Stream Sky Sports with NOW – no contract, cancel anytime
