2021 Formula One Monaco Grand Prix

Ferrari Monaco Grand Prix.jpg

Monaco GP | Who is the Driver of the Day?


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    1,306
After two years, the Monaco Grand Prix is back! Let's get talking about F1's first race at a street circuit since Singapore in 2019.

It has felt like an age since the drivers have been tested around a street circuit, and while it has not always produced the most exciting races, there is plenty to look forward to about this weekend's visit to the Côte d'Azur.

In unique Monaco fashion, practice got underway today rather than on a Friday, a tradition that has been maintained since the original Grand Prix was held on a bank holiday weekend. With the new shorter practice format and narrow track aplenty, there was lots to keep the drivers on their toes as this year's rookies familiarised themselves with the walls. We certainly won't be debating track limit rules this weekend!

Cool and dry weather is expected throughout the event, which seems to have favoured the Mercedes car in recent history. That being said, Monaco tends to see the order mixed up a little due to the unusual nature of the tight and twisty circuit. A few parts of the track have been resurfaced this year, with some of the drivers noting the higher grip levels. While Sergio Perez topped the morning session, Charles Leclerc led a very strong Ferrari one-two in the afternoon, with championship leader Hamilton almost half a second off the pace.

With the Briton being the last to take pole at Monaco, and Mercedes showing impressive low-speed performance this year, he probably remains the favourite, with Max Verstappen a strong contender as ever. However, Ferrari's impressive pace caught the grid's attention, and while it was some time ago, they did take a comfortable win at F1's last street circuit event.

Let's get talking about what we're looking forward to this weekend, and cast your vote to let us know if you think Ferrari will be on the podium. Their speed today has certainly given us something else to look forward to come Saturday and qualifying.

Qualification Results​

1Charles LECLERCFerrari1:10.346
2Max VERSTAPPENRed Bull1:10.576
3Valtteri BOTTASMercedes1:10.601
4Carlos SAINZFerrari1:10.611
5Lando NORRISMcLaren1:10.620
6Pierre GASLYAlpha Tauri1:10.900
7Lewis HAMILTONMercedes1:11.095
8Sebastian VETTELAston Martin1:11.419
9Sergio PÉREZRed Bull1:11.573
10Antonio GIOVINAZZIAlfa Romeo1:11.779
11Esteban OCONAlpine1:11.486
12Daniel RICCIARDOMcLaren1:11.598
13Lance STROLLAston Martin1:11.600
14Kimi RÄIKKÖNENAlfa Romeo1:11.642
15George RUSSELLWilliams1:11.830
16Yuki TSUNODAAlpha Tauri1:12.096
17Fernando ALONSOAlpine1:12.205
18Nicholas LATIFIWilliams1:12.366
19Nikita MAZEPINHaas1:12.958
20Mick SCHUMACHERHaasDNS

The drama kicked off before the lights even went out at the Monaco Grand Prix, as pole sitter, Charles Leclerc limped back to the pits on an installation lap. Unable to resolve the issue in time for the race start, the Monegasque driver was unable to make the start line, to begin his home race from pole. Nonetheless, in a classy move he made his way to the grid to stand for his national anthem with the rest of his peers.

Max Verstappen defended his lead into turn one from Valtteri Bottas, despite starting from the dirty side of the track and on the outside into Sainte Devote. Typical of races at Monaco, there was little action to follow until the pit window. When we got there however, there was plenty of drama as a reward.

Valtteri Bottas was forced to retire in an incredibly unusual way, when the front-right wheel gun machined the nut onto his front axle, leaving the team unable to change the remaining tyre. This created an opportunity for Lando Norris to move up into the podium places, after a strong weekend.

Other drivers who made strong gains in the race were Sergio Perez and Sebastian Vettel, who managed to jump Gasly and Hamilton in the pit window with an overcut. Gasly was unable to match Perez and Vettel for pace after his first pitstop, with Hamilton stuck behind the Frenchman, after being unable to jump him on his two lap undercut strategy.

There was little further action beyond some black and white flags for Norris and Tsunoda due to some track limit violations, which saw Max Verstappen cross the line to take his first ever win at Monaco. He was followed by Carlos Sainz, who took his first podium with Ferrari, and Lando Norris after yet another very impressive weekend.

Race Results​

1Max VERSTAPPENRed BullLAP 78
2Carlos SAINZFerrari8.968
3Lando NORRISMcLaren19.427
4Sergio PÉREZRed Bull20.49
5Sebastian VETTELAston Martin52.591
6Pierre GASLYAlpha Tauri53.896
7Lewis HAMILTON*Mercedes68.231
8Lance STROLLAston Martin+ 1 Lap
9Esteban OCONAlpine+ 1 Lap
10Antonio GIOVINAZZIAlfa Romeo+ 1 Lap
11Kimi RÄIKKÖNENAlfa Romeo+ 1 Lap
12Daniel RICCIARDOMcLaren+ 1 Lap
13Fernando ALONSOAlpine+ 1 Lap
14George RUSSELLWilliams+ 1 Lap
15Nicholas LATIFIWilliams+ 1 Lap
16Yuki TSUNODAAlpha Tauri+ 1 Lap
17Nikita MAZEPINHaas+ 3 Laps
18Mick SCHUMACHERHaas+ 3 Laps
19Valtteri BOTTASMercedesDNF
20Charles LECLERCFerrariDNS
* Fastest Lap +1 point

With Verstappen's first win at Monaco, also came the championship lead, after Lewis Hamilton struggled to get his tyres working like his teammate in qualifying, and was then unable to claw back the deficit in the race. He did however manage to steal a bonus point for taking fastest lap away from Yuki Tsunoda, with a late pitstop.

Having taken the championship lead for the first time in his career, Verstappen is now the only driver on the grid to have finished in the top two at every race so far in 2021. Such consistency is usually key to putting together a strong championship challenge. No doubt though that his seven-time world champion rival, Lewis Hamilton will be looking to bounce back in Baku.

Drivers Standings​

1Max VERSTAPPENRed Bull Racing105
2Lewis HAMILTONMercedes AMG Motorsport101
3Lando NORRISMcLaren Racing56
4Valtteri BOTTASMercedes AMG Motorsport47
5Sergio PÉREZRed Bull Racing44
6Charles LECLERCScuderia Ferrari40
7Carlos SAINZScuderia Ferrari38
8Daniel RICCIARDOMcLaren Racing24
9Pierre GASLYScuderia Alpha Tauri16
10Esteban OCONAlpine F112
11Sebastian VETTELAston Martin F1 Team10
12Lance STROLLAston Martin F1 Team9
13Fernando ALONSOAlpine F15
14Yuki TSUNODAScuderia Alpha Tauri2
15Antonio GIOVINAZZIAlfa Romeo Racing1
16Kimi RÄIKKÖNENAlfa Romeo Racing0
17George RUSSELLWilliams Racing0
18Nicholas LATIFIWilliams Racing0
19Mick SCHUMACHERHaas F10
20Nikita MAZEPINHaas F10

After Valtteri Bottas' pitstop misfortune, and a tough weekend for their world champion, the Monaco Grand Prix saw Mercedes lose top spot in the constructors standings to Red Bull. However, with 18 races to go it is still very early days, and nobody doubts the speed nor resilience of the team at Brackley.

Team Standings​

1Red Bull149
2Mercedes148
3McLaren80
4Ferrari78
5Aston Martin19
6Alpha Tauri18
7Alpine17
8Alfa Romeo1
9Williams0
10Haas0

We hope you enjoyed the Monaco Grand Prix, as F1 looks ahead to its next chapter in Azerbaijan, in two weeks' time.
About author
Charlie Lockwood
23. Motorsport and Sim Racing enthusiast.

Comments

If I were Red Bull, I wouldn't feel too confident yet. A few years back, Vettel had a fairly sizeable lead right around the summer break and ended up giving it all away in just a couple of races.
 
If I were Red Bull, I wouldn't feel too confident yet. A few years back, Vettel had a fairly sizeable lead right around the summer break and ended up giving it all away in just a couple of races.
This is a championship about which car is better on which track. Edit: and most of the tracks the merc is the last 7 years very strong. Redbull have a lot of work to do!
 
Last edited:
If I were Red Bull, I wouldn't feel too confident yet. A few years back, Vettel had a fairly sizeable lead right around the summer break and ended up giving it all away in just a couple of races.
If I were Red Bull I would stop development in this season's car. Mercedes still has a half a second faster car, but is just playing with them to keep them developing a car that isn't going to win any championship and that excess of work on this season's car will make them start the new regulations cycle in a weakened position having to catching up with everybody.

Mercedes stopped the development of the 2020 car at spa with a car half a second faster, while rbr kept developing the car until the last race and they were still slower than mercedes until the last race that both mercedes raced underpowered on purpose just to test a new cooling system for 2021.

Mercedes has half a season of advantage in engineering man hours over rbr on the 2021 car, they simulated a undrivable car to be able to sell themselves as the underdog and to bait rbr into believe that they really closed the gap.

The truth is that magically in bahrain the mercedes no longer were undrivable, and in the race lewis and even frikking bottas was the shadow of max's gearbox, and max with drs open was unable to close the gap with the mercedes on the straights.

In imola suddenly they were on pole, and once the track started to dry hamilton was lapping half a second faster than max.

In portimao another pole for mercedes and in the race lewis was max's gearbox shadow until he overtook him, after that max got locked behind a slower bottas, being unable to close the gap even with the drs open and a slipstream.

At spain another pole to mercedes, and in the race hamilton could keep behind max's dirty air as much as he liked and still have quite a lot less tyre degradation.

In monaco frikkin bottas was fighting for the pole position when leclerc crashed, and in the race he was following verstappen with ease, just imagine what lewis could had done had he not gotten lost in the setup direction they followed.

Also, every time they need something extra they magically find extra pace to save their asses. It's very clear that they aren't showing all what they really have in order to bait rbr into waste resources to get rid of a rival for the first season of the next regulations.

Very sly and clever if you ask me. Even the wings protest goes in that direction, casually mercedes, mclaren and aston martin that last season had flexi-wings stopped using them for the 2021 season and now they are very vocal on penaltys to the rest of the teams that still use them. The motivation is to make them waste extra engineering hours and money in this season's car in order to have a small engineering and budged advantage for next season.

Sly and clever, if you think how casual is that the only teams that no longer have flexi-wings and are most vocal about the issue are the teams that mount mercedes engines. Toto's influence over his client teams is overwhelming and all those teams now have gained something with it.

So, basically rbr are going to loose this season's championships and start the next one on the backfoot. And it also has the potential to fool max into overdrive the car believing that because on appearance he es just a tenth or two slower he can make the difference in performance taking risks and overdriving, that would make him destroy his tyres and have mistakes or crashes, making lewis look like a god. Vettel has fall into that same trap before.

Food for tought: if in 2020 with a half a second faster car bottas was having a nightmare to keep max behind him on most races, how it is possible that now with on paper max having a car that closed a half a second gap that bottas can keep up with max on the race and still can outqualify him. If they had a slower car hamilton would make the difference and bottas would be nowhere near him. Mercedes is toying with rbr.
 
If I were Red Bull I would stop development in this season's car. Mercedes still has a half a second faster car, but is just playing with them to keep them developing a car that isn't going to win any championship and that excess of work on this season's car will make them start the new regulations cycle in a weakened position having to catching up with everybody.

Mercedes stopped the development of the 2020 car at spa with a car half a second faster, while rbr kept developing the car until the last race and they were still slower than mercedes until the last race that both mercedes raced underpowered on purpose just to test a new cooling system for 2021.

Mercedes has half a season of advantage in engineering man hours over rbr on the 2021 car, they simulated a undrivable car to be able to sell themselves as the underdog and to bait rbr into believe that they really closed the gap.

The truth is that magically in bahrain the mercedes no longer were undrivable, and in the race lewis and even frikking bottas was the shadow of max's gearbox, and max with drs open was unable to close the gap with the mercedes on the straights.

In imola suddenly they were on pole, and once the track started to dry hamilton was lapping half a second faster than max.

In portimao another pole for mercedes and in the race lewis was max's gearbox shadow until he overtook him, after that max got locked behind a slower bottas, being unable to close the gap even with the drs open and a slipstream.

At spain another pole to mercedes, and in the race hamilton could keep behind max's dirty air as much as he liked and still have quite a lot less tyre degradation.

In monaco frikkin bottas was fighting for the pole position when leclerc crashed, and in the race he was following verstappen with ease, just imagine what lewis could had done had he not gotten lost in the setup direction they followed.

Also, every time they need something extra they magically find extra pace to save their asses. It's very clear that they aren't showing all what they really have in order to bait rbr into waste resources to get rid of a rival for the first season of the next regulations.

Very sly and clever if you ask me. Even the wings protest goes in that direction, casually mercedes, mclaren and aston martin that last season had flexi-wings stopped using them for the 2021 season and now they are very vocal on penaltys to the rest of the teams that still use them. The motivation is to make them waste extra engineering hours and money in this season's car in order to have a small engineering and budged advantage for next season.

Sly and clever, if you think how casual is that the only teams that no longer have flexi-wings and are most vocal about the issue are the teams that mount mercedes engines. Toto's influence over his client teams is overwhelming and all those teams now have gained something with it.

So, basically rbr are going to loose this season's championships and start the next one on the backfoot. And it also has the potential to fool max into overdrive the car believing that because on appearance he es just a tenth or two slower he can make the difference in performance taking risks and overdriving, that would make him destroy his tyres and have mistakes or crashes, making lewis look like a god. Vettel has fall into that same trap before.

Food for tought: if in 2020 with a half a second faster car bottas was having a nightmare to keep max behind him on most races, how it is possible that now with on paper max having a car that closed a half a second gap that bottas can keep up with max on the race and still can outqualify him. If they had a slower car hamilton would make the difference and bottas would be nowhere near him. Mercedes is toying with rbr.
interesting to read! Agree with many things. But at Redbulll they aren't completely stupid either. They are busy hiring good people .. they will run the engine themselves .. The Merc is simply the better car ... power engine! but Lewis will finally have to really fight for his wdc and that is only a good thing.
 
If I were Red Bull I would stop development in this season's car. Mercedes still has a half a second faster car, but is just playing with them to keep them developing a car that isn't going to win any championship and that excess of work on this season's car will make them start the new regulations cycle in a weakened position having to catching up with everybody.

Mercedes stopped the development of the 2020 car at spa with a car half a second faster, while rbr kept developing the car until the last race and they were still slower than mercedes until the last race that both mercedes raced underpowered on purpose just to test a new cooling system for 2021.

Mercedes has half a season of advantage in engineering man hours over rbr on the 2021 car, they simulated a undrivable car to be able to sell themselves as the underdog and to bait rbr into believe that they really closed the gap.

The truth is that magically in bahrain the mercedes no longer were undrivable, and in the race lewis and even frikking bottas was the shadow of max's gearbox, and max with drs open was unable to close the gap with the mercedes on the straights.

In imola suddenly they were on pole, and once the track started to dry hamilton was lapping half a second faster than max.

In portimao another pole for mercedes and in the race lewis was max's gearbox shadow until he overtook him, after that max got locked behind a slower bottas, being unable to close the gap even with the drs open and a slipstream.

At spain another pole to mercedes, and in the race hamilton could keep behind max's dirty air as much as he liked and still have quite a lot less tyre degradation.

In monaco frikkin bottas was fighting for the pole position when leclerc crashed, and in the race he was following verstappen with ease, just imagine what lewis could had done had he not gotten lost in the setup direction they followed.

Also, every time they need something extra they magically find extra pace to save their asses. It's very clear that they aren't showing all what they really have in order to bait rbr into waste resources to get rid of a rival for the first season of the next regulations.

Very sly and clever if you ask me. Even the wings protest goes in that direction, casually mercedes, mclaren and aston martin that last season had flexi-wings stopped using them for the 2021 season and now they are very vocal on penaltys to the rest of the teams that still use them. The motivation is to make them waste extra engineering hours and money in this season's car in order to have a small engineering and budged advantage for next season.

Sly and clever, if you think how casual is that the only teams that no longer have flexi-wings and are most vocal about the issue are the teams that mount mercedes engines. Toto's influence over his client teams is overwhelming and all those teams now have gained something with it.

So, basically rbr are going to loose this season's championships and start the next one on the backfoot. And it also has the potential to fool max into overdrive the car believing that because on appearance he es just a tenth or two slower he can make the difference in performance taking risks and overdriving, that would make him destroy his tyres and have mistakes or crashes, making lewis look like a god. Vettel has fall into that same trap before.

Food for tought: if in 2020 with a half a second faster car bottas was having a nightmare to keep max behind him on most races, how it is possible that now with on paper max having a car that closed a half a second gap that bottas can keep up with max on the race and still can outqualify him. If they had a slower car hamilton would make the difference and bottas would be nowhere near him. Mercedes is toying with rbr.
You make up great stories.
You can choose to have a car for the whole season or a good car at some.
Mercedes made a mess of this race.
At most other tracks they will do really good.
 
Premium
Personally I think there's a lack of moral at Mercedes, Lewis looked uninterested in Bahrain. Bottas looks equally miserable.

Just a wild thought lol
 
Premium
Yesterday Lewis just let Bottas to win but what did Bottas? Bottas is the biggest looser ever no matter if it was technical problem yesterday, he will never win F1 title!!! I'm from Finland and Kimi Raikkonen is still my hero!!!
 
totally agree! but what i liked about this race yesterday say it again. Merc big mouth ... never get overconfident. You do the others drivers too short. I especially enjoyed the young generation who showed what they can do all weekend.

it would be nice to have some adjustments to the track. If Max hadn't won it, I would have found it boring too. But hey boring .... x7 years merc domination is borring ;)
 
78 laps of deadly boredom. I did not ask for overtaking, now impossible due to the speed and size of these cars, but at least one attempt to attack is. Nothing at all, the most exciting thing was the bottas wheel bolt. I think it's time to change something with Monte Carlo, or type of event or the circuit
 
78 laps of deadly boredom. I did not ask for overtaking, now impossible due to the speed and size of these cars, but at least one attempt to attack is. Nothing at all, the most exciting thing was the bottas wheel bolt. I think it's time to change something with Monte Carlo, or type of event or the circuit
They have to create 2 or 3 locations where you can overtake, but where?:(
 
78 laps of deadly boredom. I did not ask for overtaking, now impossible due to the speed and size of these cars, but at least one attempt to attack is. Nothing at all, the most exciting thing was the bottas wheel bolt. I think it's time to change something with Monte Carlo, or type of event or the circuit
There was not a single passing attempt during the whole race.
They say the error margin at Monaco is much thinner than anywhere else but this was a GP without any mistake (except a few lazy shortcuts at the chicane). So it is not only the speed and size of the cars, but also the way they drive.
 
There was not a single passing attempt during the whole race.
They say the error margin at Monaco is much thinner than anywhere else but this was a GP without any mistake (except a few lazy shortcuts at the chicane). So it is not only the speed and size of the cars, but also the way they drive.
Mick passed Nikita on the sidewalk of the Grand Hotel Hairpin.
 

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