Minute-by-minute updates for the 2024 Formula 1 Monaco Grand Prix.
The Monaco GP was stopped after barely half a lap due to a huge crash involving Sergio Perez and the two Haas cars.
Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc had just led away easily from pole ahead of McLaren driver Oscar Piastri, while behind Carlos Sainz first attacked Piastri at Ste Devote and then slid off at Casino Square with a suspected puncture.
Perez was eliminated by Kevin Magnussen trying to poke his nose into a gap on the run up the hill before Massenet, with their crash wreckage then swinging across the track and taking out Nico Hulkenberg as he tried to come by from just behind.
The first racing lap is completed, despite it being the start of lap four as DRS is enabled - Leclerc leads by 1s from Piastri with Sainz tucked in between the two McLarens in third.
The drivers are on their way to the grid for the restart, with the top four all switching to the hard tyres having initially been on the mediums so all effectively get a free pitstop.
We've seen non-stop races at Monaco before, of course. Famously, Mika Salo in the Tyrrell adopted that strategy to finish fifth in 1997. They were the only two points he'd score all season.
Magnussen to Sky Sports on the start crash: "I had a good part of my front alongside Perez's rear and when he went to the wall I got pushed into the wall and made contact with him. I trusted that he was going to leave a space for me since I was there.
"It is not a corner that you brake into, a little bend on the straight, so you have to have a car width or you leave the guy no option. It is unfortunate and it is a lot of cost to the team, a lot of work for the guys and a missed opportunity today"
Tsunoda has enjoyed a strong weekend to date, and could be one of the big beneficiaries of the red flag. He started on the mediums, so can switch to hards and now run to the end - while the three drivers immediately ahead of him will have to try and keep the more fragile mediums alive for more than 70 laps. Could fifth be on the cards for the RB driver?
Replays from on-board Zhou's car show him slowing abruptly as the accident unfolded ahead of him, before the medical car blitzes past him to the scene of Perez's wrecked car. Zhou slowly navigates his way through the debris field, then has to wait for the medical car to shut its rear door before continuing on his way. Very courteous.
This early red flag undoes hopes that Russell, Verstappen and Hamilton may have had about profiting from safety car drama late in the race, as transpired in this morning's F2 feature race. Zak O'Sullivan rose from 15th on the grid by leaving his stop until two laps from the end, just before a VSC bought him a free stop.
Everybody who started on the medium can now switch to the hard and attempt to go the distance. Given the paucity of overtaking opportunities, that may well prove possible as drivers can ease off their true pace without conceding position - as demonstrated effectively by Daniel Ricciardo in 2018.
The FIA stewards also announce there will be no further investigation into the first corner clash between Perez and the Haas pair. Magnussen will breathe a huge sigh of relief given he is on the cusp of a race ban.
That was bold from Ocon, and per Martin Brundle on commentary "you don't divebomb your team-mate into Portier". They might get away with it if repairs can be completed in this red flag stoppage.
Perhaps unsurprisingly, that altercation has been noted by the stewards. You'd expect Ocon's car will need a fair amount of attention to the floor after that.
The latest replays show an almighty clash between the two Alpine drivers. Ocon lunges Gasly into Portier and the two squeeze together at the corner exit, with Ocon's left-rear tyre launched over Gasly's right-front, sending Ocon airborne and clattering heavily on landing. Wow.
Ironically, getting a poor start that meant he was overtaken by both Haas drivers was to Zhou Guanyu's benefit there. He did well to stand on the anchors and avoid becoming part of the accident.
Speaking earlier in the weekend to Autosport, Magnussen admitted that the prospect of a ban is not something he tries not to think about.
"I didn’t think about it," he said. "I have to still keep pushing otherwise I spend the next 20 races cruising around. I’m not gonna do that. It doesn’t make sense either."
Hulkenberg was the innocent bystander there, his right-rear wheel just clipping Perez as his out-of-control Red Bull came back across the road. If Magnussen is issued penalty points for causing the crash, he could well be facing a race ban.
Replays of the start show Piastri clipping his right-side of his car into Sainz's left-front tyre, which instantly punctures, and Sainz simply cannot turn right into Casino Square. He has got going but is down in 16th subject to any restart shuffles.
With a clearer view, it appears Perez didn't lose it on his own but was clipped by Magnussen which fired both hard right into the wall before cannoning back into the path of Hulkenberg.
The Haas cars had split their strategies with Hulkenberg on the medium and Magnussen on the hard, following the rear wing infringement that demoted them to the back of the grid. Perez it appears from replays instigated the crash by spinning and impacting the barriers hard, clipping Hulkenberg and then being hit again by Magnussen who had nowhere to go.
Everyone still in this race heads back into the pits - including Sainz who has got going again. In theory they can all change tyres now and then not need to pit at all in this race... if they can make the tyres last.
Leclerc gets away cleanly to keep the lead, as Piastri go side-by-side into the first corner. Sainz has damage and pulls out of the race at Casino square!
