Max Verstappen Wins Monaco Grand Prix, Leads Championship
Max Verstappen won the 2021 Monaco Grand Prix and, for the first time in his Formula 1 career, now leads the drivers’ championship. The Dutchman had qualified second on Saturday, but inherited the lead after pole sitter Charles Leclerc reported an issue with his car that prevented him from even starting the race — likely as a result of crashing into the barriers after setting the fastest time the day prior.
Pit Stop: Choose the right tire
As tends to be the case in Monaco, the race was ultimately decided by strategy. In fact, there were no on-track overtakes today aside from Mick Schumacher’s aggressive move on Haas F1 teammate Nikita Mazepin at the hairpin — the slowest corner on the whole calendar.
Verstappen’s championship rival, Lewis Hamilton, was nowhere over the weekend. He qualified only seventh and spent the entire race stuck behind AlphaTauri’s Pierre Gasly. Mercedes attempted an undercut to get him ahead, but it didn’t work — worse, it backfired. Sebastian Vettel stayed out longer and made the overcut work, passing both Gasly and Hamilton during the pit phase and finally scoring his first points for the new Aston Martin team.
Driving Tip: How to avoid and control skidding
The Red Bull Racing team made even better work of the overcut with Pérez, who managed to finish fourth despite another poor qualifying performance. Meanwhile, the only real challenge to Verstappen’s lead was Valtteri Bottas, but he had to retire when his pit crew outright failed to get one of his wheels off the car.
This meant that despite Leclerc’s issues and his teammate’s retirement, Hamilton failed to make up any ground relative to his starting position, and he was more than just a little unhappy about it. Still, he’s only four points behind his main rival in the championship. He should feel pretty good about that considering this lackluster weekend and his crash at Imola.
Kurt Verlin was born in France and lives in the United States. Throughout his life he was always told French was the language of romance, but it was English he fell in love with. He likes cats, music, cars, 30 Rock, Formula 1, and pretending to be a race car driver in simulators; but most of all, he just likes to write about it all. See more articles by Kurt.