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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We've missed the two Red Bulls switching onto inters, according to the timing screens, so they'll have done that in the lay-off.
Pit stop
Gasly pits at the end of the safety car laps to go on to intermediates, as have Latifi and Stroll who almost collided in the pitlane.
Green flag
Here we go! Leclerc gets us underway!
Stroll and Latifi are still in this race at the back of the pack as the race looks set to get going.
The safety car will come in at the end of lap 2, and it'll be a rolling start.
Pit stop
Stroll has also brushed the wall on the first lap behind the safety car and picked up a puncture. Latifi meanwhile has got going again and also pits for a new front wing.
Crash
Latifi has crashed behind the safety car! He's gone into the barrier at the hairpin!
The 2022 Monaco Grand Prix is...go? Was it already go?
Green flag
Things are happening now - pitlane is open!
Breaking news
We'll get going in five minutes behind the safety car.
77 laps on the ticker, so we lose a lap from the total race distance. If we get a couple of formation laps behind the safety car we'll lose more - but it's something, at least.
Breaking news
10-minute signal! We don't want to count our chickens, but hopefully something happens that isn't rain...
Twitter
Rain
Rain has now picked up in intensity. Might just give up at this point...
LANCE STROLL
It's barely spitting now, according to the TV cameras. We're getting impatient here.
Rain
Weather update: it's still wet.
Photo
Keke Rosberg leads Stefan Bellof in the 1984 Monaco GP
Red flag
Red flag. We're having a Spa day in Monaco.
Quote
"Heavy rain now, and a lot of water generally," Vettel reports over team radio. He isn't wrong, it is very wet on track.
Breaking news
From the desk of the FIA: "Race control was monitoring a severe downpour that was rapidly approaching the circuit, and as it arrived during the start procedure, the safety car start and its associated procedures were implemented. This was done for safety reasons in consideration that there has been no wet running this weekend."
Green flag
We have movement! It's formation lap time!
Quote
"Everyone take some deep breaths," Lewis Hamilton says over the radio, with the calmness of the Headspace voiceover guy.
Quote
"We're all waiting for a race to come past, and we don't seem to be getting one" - the ghost of James Hunt, 2022 probably
Ponchos out in full force among the grandstands. Or, in one fan's case, a pizza box as it's now pizz-ing it down.
What race control appears to have done is wait for the rain to get worse before starting it.
Formation lap will now start at 14:16 BST (15:16 local) time. I'll be honest, I rewatched the 1997 race (a wet one) yesterday and there was no sniff of a safety car, or delays, or any other faffing. This is silly.
Leclerc and Sainz are taking wets now, as race control states a delayed start. No idea what they're waiting for.
Breaking news
The formation lap will begin behind the safety car.
There's a few changes to the wet tyre now, including Alonso, Vettel and Ocon. Norris is making the switch too, so nobody sure what the right tyre for this is.
Quote
Everyone is on inters for the start, so the formation lap will begin at 14:09 BST. That's a nice...round number? "Heavy rain coming" says Bottas' race engineer over the radio.
Race control has put it down as a change in climatic conditions, stating low grip conditions. So, uh, damp start? Time for inters?
Breaking news
Start procedure is suspended. It begins.
Just a few minutes until the 78-lap parade. Are you ready?
Rain
RAIN. There is rain. Hace llueve. Il pleut.
Twitter
There's Alain Prost, so time for a potential commentary cliche: "there's a man who knows a thing or two about winning here in the wet." Or, calling for it to be ended early...
Our team out on the grid have reported a few spots of you-know-what descending from the sky. But equally, it could be someone with a watering can on the balcony...
In more important and factual news, it appears it's clouding over in the ol' Principality. I'm not going to say the "r-word", but it doesn't exactly conjure up images of a sunny, sparkling riviera.
Another fun fact: Monaco is a portmanteau of "money" and "taco", owing to its high GDP and it being wrapped within the mountains like a taco. I mean, it's a completely made up fact, but it sounds legit.
By: Autosport Staff
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