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Formula 1 Monaco GP

Grand Prix race results: Verstappen wins in Monaco

Max Verstappen won the Monaco Grand Prix in Monte Carlo for Red Bull on Sunday, the fifth race of the 2021 Formula 1 World Championship season.

Charles Bradley

Charles Bradley

Edited: May 24, 2021, 11:15 AM

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Max Verstappen, Red Bull Racing RB16B, Valtteri Bottas, Mercedes W12

With pole position winner Charles Leclerc not starting the race, after the left-side driveshaft of his Ferrari (that he crashed in qualifying) failed on his installation lap, the door was opened to Verstappen.

He led from start to finish, as his closest challenger Valtteri Bottas was forced to retire after his right-front wheelnut was stripped in his pitstop, which promoted Ferrari’s Carlos Sainz to second and McLaren’s Lando Norris to third.

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2021 Monaco Grand Prix race results

Cla Driver Chassis Laps Time Gap Interval 1 Netherlands Max Verstappen
Red Bull 78 1:38'56.820 2 Spain Carlos Sainz Jr.
Ferrari 78 1:39'05.788 8.968 8.968 3 United Kingdom Lando Norris
McLaren 78 1:39'16.247 19.427 10.459 4 Mexico Sergio Perez
Red Bull 78 1:39'17.310 20.490 1.063 5 Germany Sebastian Vettel
Aston Martin 78 1:39'49.411 52.591 32.101 6 France Pierre Gasly
AlphaTauri 78 1:39'50.716 53.896 1.305 7 United Kingdom Lewis Hamilton
Mercedes 78 1:40'05.051 1'08.231 14.335 8 Canada Lance Stroll
Aston Martin 77 1:39'01.997 1 Lap 1 Lap 9 France Esteban Ocon
Alpine 77 1:39'38.906 1 Lap 36.909 10 Italy Antonio Giovinazzi
Alfa Romeo 77 1:39'39.322 1 Lap 0.416 11 Finland Kimi Raikkonen
Alfa Romeo 77 1:39'40.674 1 Lap 1.352 12 Australia Daniel Ricciardo
McLaren 77 1:39'42.824 1 Lap 2.150 13 Spain Fernando Alonso
Alpine 77 1:39'43.312 1 Lap 0.488 14 United Kingdom George Russell
Williams 77 1:40'08.621 1 Lap 25.309 15 Canada Nicholas Latifi
Williams 77 1:40'09.705 1 Lap 1.084 16 Japan Yuki Tsunoda
AlphaTauri 77 1:40'10.464 1 Lap 0.759 17 Russian Federation Nikita Mazepin
Haas 75 1:39'34.863 3 Laps 2 Laps 18 Germany Mick Schumacher
Haas 75 1:39'36.319 3 Laps 1.456 Finland Valtteri Bottas
Mercedes 29 37'06.997 49 Laps 46 Laps Monaco Charles Leclerc
Ferrari 0 View full results

How the Monaco Grand Prix unfolded

From P2 on the grid, but effectively pole position due to Leclerc’s absence, Verstappen chopped across the bows of Bottas to lead at Sainte Devote.

Ferrari’s sole participant Sainz ran third, ahead of Norris and AlphaTauri’s Pierre Gasly, with points leader Lewis Hamilton (Mercedes) in sixth. Sebastian Vettel (Aston Martin) repelled an early attack from Red Bull’s Sergio Perez, with Antonio Giovinazzi (Alfa Romeo) and Esteban Ocon (Alpine) rounding out the top 10. Aston’s Lance Stroll was the leading medium-tyred starter in 11th.

Bottas began to struggle with his soft tyres at one-third distance, allowing Sainz to close in as Verstappen increased his lead to over 5s.

Hamilton triggered the pitstop cycle on Lap 30, switching to the hard tyres in an effort to undercut Gasly. But he failed to do so, and his annoyance was amplified when Vettel managed to jump ahead of both Gasly and Hamilton via the overcut strategy of running longer while pushing hard. Vettel only just clung to the place, after braving it out side-by-side with Gasly through Beau Rivage as he rejoined after his pitstop.

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Bottas pitted a lap later than Hamilton, but the right-front wheelgun machined away the thread of the right-front wheelnut so the mechanics couldn’t remove the wheel. Bottas was forced to retire, promoting Sainz to second and Norris to third, although Norris had received a black-and-white flag warning for straightlining the Nouvelle Chicane, putting him at risk of a 5s penalty if he did it again.

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Sainz pitted on Lap 33, with Verstappen following suit a lap later. That released Perez briefly out front, and in clear air he leapfrogged from eighth to fourth after making his pitstop.

Sainz rejoined 5s in arrears of Verstappen, and trimmed his lead down under 3s at one point, but had nothing to truly challenge for victory and fell away by almost 10s when he suffered tyre graining.

Behind the distant Norris, who also struggled on his second set of tyres, Perez chased him home in fourth, ahead of Vettel, Gasly, Hamilton (who was furious about his race strategy but took the extra point for fastest lap), Stroll (who jumped up to eighth from 11th by running a long first stint), Ocon and Giovinazzi.

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2021 Formula 1 Monaco Grand Prix fastest laps

Cla Driver Chassis Laps Time Gap Interval km/h 1 United Kingdom Lewis Hamilton
Mercedes 69 1'12.909 164.769 2 Japan Yuki Tsunoda
AlphaTauri 66 1'14.037 1.128 1.128 162.259 3 Mexico Sergio Perez
Red Bull 32 1'14.552 1.643 0.515 161.138 4 Australia Daniel Ricciardo
McLaren 43 1'14.578 1.669 0.026 161.082 5 Spain Carlos Sainz Jr.
Ferrari 35 1'14.621 1.712 0.043 160.989 6 Netherlands Max Verstappen
Red Bull 58 1'14.649 1.740 0.028 160.929 7 United Kingdom Lando Norris
McLaren 76 1'14.670 1.761 0.021 160.883 8 Canada Lance Stroll
Aston Martin 74 1'14.674 1.765 0.004 160.875 9 Finland Kimi Raikkonen
Alfa Romeo 55 1'14.971 2.062 0.297 160.237 10 Spain Fernando Alonso
Alpine 70 1'15.026 2.117 0.055 160.120 11 Germany Sebastian Vettel
Aston Martin 33 1'15.316 2.407 0.290 159.503 12 France Esteban Ocon
Alpine 41 1'15.316 2.407 0.000 159.503 13 Italy Antonio Giovinazzi
Alfa Romeo 41 1'15.331 2.422 0.015 159.472 14 France Pierre Gasly
AlphaTauri 71 1'15.412 2.503 0.081 159.300 15 United Kingdom George Russell
Williams 59 1'15.539 2.630 0.127 159.033 16 Canada Nicholas Latifi
Williams 66 1'15.573 2.664 0.034 158.961 17 Finland Valtteri Bottas
Mercedes 18 1'15.706 2.797 0.133 158.682 18 Germany Mick Schumacher
Haas 51 1'16.425 3.516 0.719 157.189 19 Russian Federation Nikita Mazepin
Haas 64 1'16.866 3.957 0.441 156.287 View full results

2021 Formula 1 Monaco Grand Prix tyre history

Cla Driver 1 2 3 1 Netherlands Max Verstappen
Red Bull Racing-Honda RB16B S 39 H 44 2 Spain Carlos Sainz Jr.
Ferrari SF21 S 38 H 46 3 United Kingdom Lando Norris
McLaren-Mercedes MCL35M S 35 H 48 4 Mexico Sergio Perez
Red Bull Racing-Honda RB16B S 40 H 43 5 Germany Sebastian Vettel
Aston Martin-Mercedes AMR21 S 36 H 47 6 France Pierre Gasly
AlphaTauri-Honda AT02 S 36 H 48 7 United Kingdom Lewis Hamilton
Mercedes F1 W12 EQ Power+ S 33 H 38 S 15 8 Canada Lance Stroll
Aston Martin-Mercedes AMR21 H 58 S 19 9 France Esteban Ocon
Alpine-Renault A521 S 37 M 40 10 Italy Antonio Giovinazzi
Alfa Romeo Racing-Ferrari C41 S 38 H 44 11 Finland Kimi Raikkonen
Alfa Romeo Racing-Ferrari C41 M 43 H 34 12 Australia Daniel Ricciardo
McLaren-Mercedes MCL35M M 36 H 41 13 Spain Fernando Alonso
Alpine-Renault A521 M 45 S 32 14 United Kingdom George Russell
Williams-Mercedes FW43B M 31 H 46 15 Canada Nicholas Latifi
Williams-Mercedes FW43B M 43 H 34 16 Japan Yuki Tsunoda
AlphaTauri-Honda AT02 H 64 S 13 17 Russian Federation Nikita Mazepin
Haas-Ferrari VF-21 S 34 H 41 18 Germany Mick Schumacher
Haas-Ferrari VF-21 S 37 H 38 Finland Valtteri Bottas
Mercedes F1 W12 EQ Power+ S 34 Monaco Charles Leclerc
Ferrari SF21 S 4 View full results

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