The Formula 1 edit

Hello everyone and welcome to one of the oldest grand prix in the history of the sport! First debuting in 1929, the Monaco grand prix is one of the hardest street tracks in the schedule! Here is everything you need to know about qualifying and the race that was held last weekend!

q1

Ferrari driver Charles Leclerc quickly set the fastest time, something that every Charles Leclerc fan was hoping he would do! This fabled race was won by the Monegasque driver last year, making him the first to win his home race in 93 years, so a ton of pressure is on him this year to follow up his 2024 win with a 2025 win.

With no more time left in Q1, Fernando Alonso and Liam Lawson found themselves at risk for elimination. Once completing their laps, they both advanced out of the danger zone! The same happened for Brazilian driver Gabriel Bortoleto, but when Isack Hadjar completed his lap, he took the safe position from his fellow rookie, sending Bortoleto back to 16th.

The yellow flag flies at the end of Q1 for Kimi Antonelli, who crashed into the barrier. After clipping the wall in a turn, the Italian driver lost control and ended up in the wall.

Max Verstappen and Lewis Hamilton were put under investigation when Hamilton’s car started to slow down with Verstappen behind him. Verstappen had to drive around him which sent him into a spiral.

Drivers eliminated during Q1 were Franco Colapinto, Lance Stroll, Pierre Gasly, Oliver Bearman, and Gabriel Bortoleto.

q2

With 10 minutes and 24 seconds left in Q2, yet another Mercedes driver faced issues! George Russell, while driving through a tunnel, told his engineers he had lost power. The car ended up switching off. The red flag flew and the session was stopped momentarily to allow the marshals to push his car to the nearest exit. Both Mercedes drivers have retired their cars and will not see Q3. A sad day for Toto Wolff.

With no time left on the clock, the drivers who were yet to complete their lap were scrambling to make it out of the bottom 5. Isack Hadjar improves to 6th from 12th place. Carlos Sainz is put under pressure with currently being in P10. His teammate, Alex Albon, advances to P3, leaving Sainz to fend for himself in P11. Red Bull driver Yuki Tsunoda finishes his lap in a sad 12th position.

The unfortunate victims of the Q2 elimination were Kimi Antonelli with his time deleted, George Russell with his time also deleted, Nico Hulkenberg, Yuki Tsunoda, and Carlos Sainz.

q3

Oscar Piastri sets the fastest time, 1:10:531 is the time for his teammate Lando Norris to beat. Norris starts to fly through the sharp turns that make up the Monaco circuit, and when I say flying, he was literally flying! He replaced his teammate for pole position with a lap time of 1:10:464.

After the Papaya drivers set their times, all heads turned to the blurs of red! Lewis Hamilton makes it into third, and now Charles Leclerc is under pressure to deliver a faster time than Norris! Growing up in Monaco, Leclerc has a lot of fellow Monegasque counting on him! Can he do it? Unfortunately, he can only make it into 3rd.

Here goes the reigning world champion! Verstappen rips through corners and makes it up to 4th!

With 3 minutes and 12 seconds left in Q3, the drivers are now looking to set their final and hopefully fastest lap time. Both McLaren cars start their laps. Oscar Piastri sets the fastest lap right away! 1:10:140 is the time to beat! Now we turn to Lando Norris! He flies through the turns in hopes that he can beat his teammate’s time, and he does it! Norris to pole position! Here goes the Ferrari cars! Hamilton reaches the line and shoots up to 3rd! Charles Leclerc now comes racing through the circuit, having the fastest middle sector pace of any driver so far! He finishes his lap and skyrockets into first! Charles Leclerc to pole position!! The entire Ferrari garage can be heard erupting with cheers! Then goes Max Verstappen! Can he beat his opponent for pole? No, he can’t! He stays in 5th! Now we look back to the McLaren cars! Being second to a Ferrari just won’t do! Oscar manages 3rd but Lando is absolutely tearing through the track! He takes pole! Not only did he set the fastest lap time of the event, but the fastest lap time ever recorded at the Monaco circuit. In the history of this famous race, which has been held for 96 years, a driver has never set a record time under 70 seconds, until Lando Norris came along! Norris is sick of being in his teammate’s shadow, so he came through and decided to show everyone who he is and what he’s capable of! The time for Q3 runs out and Lando Norris takes pole for the Monaco grand prix!

It is a known saying that you can win this race on Saturday, meaning that if you score pole position for Monaco, it’s very likely you will hold on to that place for the entire race. With tight corners and not a lot of room to pass, it’s very easy to hold onto your position, this almost guarantees a win for the British Papaya driver!

the grid

1. Lando Norris (McLaren)
2. Charles Leclerc (Ferrari)
3. Oscar Piastri (Mclaren)
4. Max Verstappen (Red Bull)
5. Isack Hadjar (VCARB)
6. Fernando Alonso (Aston Martin)
7. Lewis Hamilton (Ferrari)
8. Esteban Ocon (Haas)
9. Liam Lawson (VCARB)
10. Alex Albon (Williams)
11. Carlos Sainz (Williams)
12. Yuki Tsunoda (Red Bull)
13. Nico Hulkenberg (Stake)
14. George Russell (Mercedes)
15. Kimi Antonelli (Mercedes)
16. Gabriel Bortoleto (Stake)
17. Pierre Gasly (Alpine)
18. Franco Colapinto (Alpine)
19. Lance Stroll (Aston Martin)
20. Oliver Bearman (Haas)

the race

Welcome to the 2025 Monaco grand prix! McLaren driver Lando Norris is on pole, local driver Charles Leclerc is in second, and Oscar Piastri is in third. This is one of the most difficult tracks in the racing circuit and the FIA decided to make it even more difficult with a mandatory two pit stops per driver. The strategies are sure to be interesting!

It’s lights out and away we go racing in Monaco! Charles Leclerc quickly closes the gap between himself and the lead car. Around the first corner Lando’s brakes lock up but he quickly regains control and holds onto first. Farther back on the grid, it’s rookie-eat-rookie! Stake driver Gabriel Bortoleto went around the outside of Kimi Antonelli and passed him. It didn’t take long for Antonelli to start fighting for his position again, which ended in him making a wide turn that sent Bortoleto into the wall! The yellow flag waves but quickly ends when the Brazilian rookie backed his car out of the wall and continued driving! He tells his race engineer that Kimi pushed him. Bortoleto to 20th.

In lap 9, we have yet another yellow flag flown. The flag is waving for the car of Pierre Gasly, who is currently limping down the track with one of his tires completely gone! Upon further investigation, it turns out that Gasly was getting a little too close to the Red bull car of Yuki Tsunoda, which ended in Gasly hitting the front of his car on the rear end of Tsunoda’s. He will not score any points or finish the race.

In lap 15, the drivers in the top ten start to execute their strategies for the pit stops. Over at Racing Bulls, Isack Hadjar goes in for his first pit stop. Isack’s teammate Liam Lawson, following behind Hadjar in 9th, slows down quite a bit to allow Hadjar a pit stop that guarantees he will come out of the pit lane in the same position he entered it in!

3 laps later, the Aston Martin driver Fernando Alonso is told to push and try to go faster, Alonso then proceeds to yell at his race engineer, “Ah I can’t push now!” His reasons are unknown. Although Alonso couldn’t push, it’s clear that his race engineer can, just not a race car, he just pushes Alonso’s buttons!

Lewis Hamilton makes his pit stop in lap 19 while he was ahead of Hadjar. He ended up having a super-fast pit stop and came out still ahead of the Frenchman!

Isack Hadjar, now P8, goes in and makes his final pit stop in lap 20. He has the hard tires put on, so now that both of his pit stops are out of the way, these hard tires can carry him to the very end!

13 laps later, the world champion of Max Verstappen complains to his race engineer saying, “Ah my shifts feel like Monaco grand prix 1972!” Quite an odd radio message but perhaps he means his shifts feel old and not like they were just built this year!

In lap 38, Fernando Alonso sees smoke out of the rear end of his car, resulting in him pulling off the track and hopping out of his car, the second car retirement of the day!

In lap 43, the WDC leader has quite the slide-out! When turning a corner, the back end of Oscar Piastri’s car bumped into the wall! Oscar, being the driver that he is, quickly regained control and continues on his merry way.

6 laps later, Mercedes driver George Russell finds himself behind the dark blue car of Alex Albon. Albon was driving quite slowly and Russell was tired of it. During a particularly slow turn for Albon, Russell made the poor decision to overtake his car outside of track limits, resulting in him receiving a penalty, he could either give the place back or serve a time penalty. Russell chose the time penalty, which ended up being 20 seconds! Probably not what the British driver was expecting!

4 laps later, the exact same thing happened with Alex Albon, but this time with the junior of the Merc drivers, Kimi Antonelli! At the same turn that George overtook him, Albon was again driving very slowly. Antonelli was fed up with his slow driving and passed him just like Russell did! Like father like son, but unlike daddy Russell, Antonelli chose to give the position back.

When Lando Norris had to make his second pit stop, Max Verstappen took the lead. With only 8 laps left, Verstappen is yet to make his second and final pit, resulting in Norris patiently waiting for him to enter the pit lane so he can take first and win the race. McLaren and Red Bull fans alike are contemplating this unique strategy for the four-time world champion. Many speculate that perhaps Verstappen is waiting for another driver to crash so a red flag is deployed. That way, he could make his pit stop and not have to worry about Norris passing him, but that’s wishful thinking, he can’t rely on someone to crash! Meanwhile, Norris is being put under pressure by the car behind. Charles Leclerc, currently third, wants to win this grand prix probably more so than any other driver. Winning his second home race in a row would be absolutely cinematic, but with this super tight street track, the Ferrari driver can’t get his hopes up.

One lap later, Max Verstappen still hasn’t pitted! Lando Norris is still in second with Charles Leclerc still hot on his tail.

Finally, in lap 77, Verstappen pits. Norris takes first with Charles Leclerc still right behind him.

In the last lap of the race, Lando Norris rounds the final corners, he sees the Ferrari in his mirror but pushes on! Norris is the first to see the checkered flag! Lando Norris wins the Monaco grand prix! What a fantastic day for the Papaya driver! With everyone constantly saying that Norris will never be as good as his teammate and constantly pushing him down, Norris has been reduced to being called an average driver, but he is nothing of the sort! Lando Norris showed up today with the coveted pole position and finished it in first!

results

1. Lando Norris (McLaren)
2. Charles Leclerc (Ferrari)
3. Oscar Piastri (Mclaren)
4. Max Verstappen (Red Bull)
5. Lewis Hamilton (Mercedes)
6. Isack Hadjar (VCARB)
7. Esteban Ocon (Haas)
8. Liam Lawson (VCARB)
9. Alex Albon (Williams)
10. Carlos Sainz (Williams)

What a fantastic day in the world of Formula 1! I’ll catch you at the grand prix that completes our triple header! See you at the Spanish grand prix!