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Formula 1
Monaco GP
F1 Monaco GP Live Commentary and Updates - race day
Minute-by-minute updates for F1's Monaco Grand Prix at Circuit de Monaco.
The Monaco Grand Prix gets underway at 14:00 BST (15:00 local time) with Charles Leclerc on pole for his home race on an all-Ferrari front row.
Carlos Sainz starts second, as Sergio Perez outqualified Red Bull team-mate Max Verstappen despite a late crash at Portier - which collected Sainz to bring out a red flag.
McLaren's Lando Norris begins from fifth, outpacing George Russell in the Mercedes.
The race will last 78 laps, and will prove particularly tough for overtaking opportunities unless the threat of rain changes the shape of the race.
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Leclerc does a 1m16.980s to set the new fastest lap. "Any sign of graining on Checo?" asks Sainz, who's hoping to pounce if the Red Bulls hit trouble.
With DRS enabled, so Sainz needs to press on to close that gap. But as the late great Murray Walker opined - catching is one thing, passing is quite another.
DRS enabled! Cats amongst the pigeons.
Stopwatch
The times are coming down, and Perez has brought the pace down to a 1m17.081s - three tenths faster than Sainz.
The F1 graphics have switched from a lap counter to a countdown timer, so the rest of the race will be measured in minutes left rather than laps left. 33 mins to go.
Stopwatch
And there's a 1m18.962s for Sainz on lap 36, who's trying to close back in on Perez in anticipation of a potential DRS activation.
Penalty
Ocon has been given a five-second penalty for causing a collision - presumably for his clash with Hamilton. Ocon is currently in ninth place but with the pack bunched up he'll provisionally lose lots of places.
Stopwatch
Leclerc responds, and pumps in a 1m19.112s to try and close in on Verstappen.
Stopwatch
Perez kicks off this 'dry' running with a 1m20.677s, but Sainz is sticking with him despite the tyre offset.
Albon, who is still way off the back of the pack in last, is setting fastest lap times in clean air. It won't really count for much, mind.
All steady away behind the frontrunners, with Hamilton tucked up behind Alonso in the fight for seventh, but no way through.
Leclerc got caught napping a little bit there, and drops a little bit off Verstappen. Perez has a lock-up into Mirabeau but he should shrug it off.
Green flag
Here we go! Green green green.
Lap 32 - and the safety car will come in at the end of it.
Albon is a bit tardy unlapping himself so it means a second lap behind the safety car.
Russell also has the mediums, as do Alonso, Hamilton, Ocon, and a swathe of cars at the back of the field.
All the lapped cars are coming by the safety car so that bit of admin has been sorted. See, it can be easy.
Breaking news
Fresh mediums for the Red Bulls, used hard tyres for the Ferraris.
Quote
"Not completely impossible" that there'll be more rain in 10 minutes, according to George Russell's engineer Riccardo Musconi.
Given the time left in this race, this is basically a sprint race-and-a-bit, so a good experiment for F1 if they ever want to bring the format to Monaco.
The track has been deemed clear, so everything's been picked out of the Swimming Pool - presumably with a net on a stick.
Breaking news
The lapped cars may overtake once the race has resumed - which is Stroll, Tsunoda, Zhou, Latifi and Albon. Insert your 2021 Abu Dhabi GP jokes here.
Quick recap: Perez leads from Sainz, Verstappen and Leclerc. The race was red flagged on lap 30 for Schumacher's crash and will restart at 5:15pm local time with a rolling restart. Then, all being well, it'll be 45 minutes of racing to the finish.
Told you it would be quick.
Breaking news
Race will resume at 17:15 local time - so that's in about 10 minutes' time.
Schumacher has stopped by the Haas garage for a quick debrief about his crash. Meanwhile, the barrier has been repaired and the debris is being cleared up so a race restart shouldn't be far away.
Schumacher, still with his helmet on, is walking down the pitlane accompanied by a doctor. He looks OK but that impact has, in all likelihood, necessitated a check-up in the FIA medical centre as per protocols.
Leclerc got out of the car somewhat angrily there, displeased with dropping from the lead into fourth place.
The race clock timer is still ticking down, so this race will end in 63 minutes regardless of how many laps get completed in that time.
It looks like this red flag is to allow the barrier to be fully repaired after Schumacher's crash.
Red flag
Red flag!
The full rear-end of the Haas car came off in the impact - gearbox, rear axle and rear wing - and that has littered a lot of debris on the track.
Schumacher's rear end gets rolled away, as the crane dangles expectantly for the front half of his Haas. We'll need some Tecpro repairs before we get going again.
Crash
Schumacher lost the rear of his car on the damp around the Swimming Pool complex and nudged the front of his car on the inside of the barrier before taking a big impact in the Tecpro barrier. So good to see Schumacher OK.
Safety car
There's a full safety car.
Quote
"I am OK, I just don't understand it," Schumacher reports on team radio. That's amazing news as his car has split in half in the accident.
Safety car
Huge crash for Schumacher! The Virtual Safety Car has been deployed!
Pit stop
Stroll finally pits, his third trip to the Aston Martin mechanics in 26 laps of racing, and comes out in 14th place.
Penalty
Albon has been given a five-second penalty for leaving the track and gaining an advantage. He's currently 19th and last so it is turning into a tough afternoon for the Williams driver.
Mechanical problem
Stroll, in 10th having been last, is the last driver on the inters. In all this chopping and changing, Magnussen is the first retirement from the race.
By: Autosport Staff
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