F1 Monaco GP race results: Verstappen wins from Sainz and Norris

With polesitter 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 a right-front wheel stub axle got stripped in his pitstop, which promoted Ferrari’s Carlos Sainz Jr to second and McLaren’s Lando Norris to third.

2021 F1 Monaco Grand Prix race results

Cla	Driver	Chassis	Laps	Time	Gap	Interval
1	Max Verstappen	Red Bull	78	1:38'56.820
2	Carlos Sainz Jr.	Ferrari	78	1:39'05.788	8.968	8.968
3	Lando Norris	McLaren	78	1:39'16.247	19.427	10.459
4	Sergio Perez	Red Bull	78	1:39'17.310	20.490	1.063
5	Sebastian Vettel	Aston Martin	78	1:39'49.411	52.591	32.101
6	Pierre Gasly	AlphaTauri	78	1:39'50.716	53.896	1.305
7	Lewis Hamilton	Mercedes	78	1:40'05.051	1'08.231	14.335
8	Lance Stroll	Aston Martin	77	1 lap
9	Esteban Ocon	Alpine	77	1 lap
10	Antonio Giovinazzi	Alfa Romeo	77	1 lap
11	Kimi Raikkonen	Alfa Romeo	77	1 lap
12	Daniel Ricciardo	McLaren	77	1 lap
13	Fernando Alonso	Alpine	77	1 lap
14	George Russell	Williams	77	1 lap
15	Nicholas Latifi	Williams	77	1 lap
16	Yuki Tsunoda	AlphaTauri	77	1 lap
17	Nikita Mazepin	Haas	75	3 laps
18	Mick Schumacher	Haas	75	3 laps
	Valtteri Bottas	Mercedes	29
	Charles Leclerc	Ferrari	0
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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 11^th.

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

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.

Bottas pitted a lap later than Hamilton, but the right-front wheelgun machined away the thread of the stub axle 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.

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 11^th by running a long first stint), Ocon and Giovinazzi.

2021 F1 Monaco Grand Prix fastest laps

Cla	Driver	Chassis	Laps	Time	Gap	Interval	km/h
1	Lewis Hamilton	Mercedes	69	1'12.909			164.769
2	Yuki Tsunoda	AlphaTauri	66	1'14.037	1.128	1.128	162.259
3	Sergio Perez	Red Bull	32	1'14.552	1.643	0.515	161.138
4	Daniel Ricciardo	McLaren	43	1'14.578	1.669	0.026	161.082
5	Carlos Sainz Jr.	Ferrari	35	1'14.621	1.712	0.043	160.989
6	Max Verstappen	Red Bull	58	1'14.649	1.740	0.028	160.929
7	Lando Norris	McLaren	76	1'14.670	1.761	0.021	160.883
8	Lance Stroll	Aston Martin	74	1'14.674	1.765	0.004	160.875
9	Kimi Raikkonen	Alfa Romeo	55	1'14.971	2.062	0.297	160.237
10	Fernando Alonso	Alpine	70	1'15.026	2.117	0.055	160.120
11	Sebastian Vettel	Aston Martin	33	1'15.316	2.407	0.290	159.503
12	Esteban Ocon	Alpine	41	1'15.316	2.407	0.000	159.503
13	Antonio Giovinazzi	Alfa Romeo	41	1'15.331	2.422	0.015	159.472
14	Pierre Gasly	AlphaTauri	71	1'15.412	2.503	0.081	159.300
15	George Russell	Williams	59	1'15.539	2.630	0.127	159.033
16	Nicholas Latifi	Williams	66	1'15.573	2.664	0.034	158.961
17	Valtteri Bottas	Mercedes	18	1'15.706	2.797	0.133	158.682
18	Mick Schumacher	Haas	51	1'16.425	3.516	0.719	157.189
19	Nikita Mazepin	Haas	64	1'16.866	3.957	0.441	156.287
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2021 F1 Monaco Grand Prix tyre history

Cla	Driver		1		2		3
1	Max Verstappen		S	39	H	44
2	Carlos Sainz Jr.		S	38	H	46
3	Lando Norris		S	35	H	48
4	Sergio Perez		S	40	H	43
5	Sebastian Vettel		S	36	H	47
6	Pierre Gasly		S	36	H	48
7	Lewis Hamilton		S	33	H	38	S	15
8	Lance Stroll		H	58	S	19
9	Esteban Ocon		S	37	M	40
10	Antonio Giovinazzi		S	38	H	44
11	Kimi Raikkonen		M	43	H	34
12	Daniel Ricciardo		M	36	H	41
13	Fernando Alonso		M	45	S	32
14	George Russell		M	31	H	46
15	Nicholas Latifi		M	43	H	34
16	Yuki Tsunoda		H	64	S	13
17	Nikita Mazepin		S	34	H	41
18	Mick Schumacher		S	37	H	38
	Valtteri Bottas		S	34
	Charles Leclerc		S	4
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