MONACO: Lando Norris celebrated his first Monaco Grand Prix win from pole position on Sunday and slashed McLaren team-mate Oscar Piastri’s Formula One lead to three points in a race more about strategy than speed.

Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc finished runner-up in the home race he won last year, with Piastri third and Red Bull’s Max Verstappen fourth — all four finishing in the order they started.

The afternoon featured two mandatory pitstops for the first time but hopes of more action around the harbourside circuit fell short.

Drivers through the field played a waiting game, with Verstappen holding off his final stop until the penultimate lap and those behind biding their time while keeping out of trouble. Norris ultimately lapped all but four cars.

The win was the Briton’s second in eight races and first since the Australian season-opener in March, as well as McLaren’s first at Monaco since 2008.

“Monaco baby!,” he shouted over the radio as the chequered flag finally fell.

“The last quarter was stressful with Leclerc behind and Max ahead but we won in Monaco,” said Norris. “This is what I dreamed of when I was a kid, so I achieved one of my dreams.”

Ferrari’s Lewis Hamilton was fifth with Racing Bulls’ Isack Hadjar sixth and Haas’s Esteban Ocon seventh.

Liam Lawson scored his first points of the season for Racing Bulls in eighth place and Williams completed the top 10 with Alex Albon and Carlos Sainz.

Mercedes had a dismal afternoon in the Mediterranean sunshine, after a nightmare in qualifying, with George Russell 11th and Italian rookie Kimi Antonelli 18th and the last car still running.

The virtual safety car was deployed on the opening lap when Sauber’s Gabriel Bortoleto went into the tyre wall at Portier, the turn before the tunnel, as Antonelli passed on the inside.

Bortoleto made it back to the pits and continued.

Alpine’s Pierre Gasly was the first retirement, the Frenchman crashing into the back of Yuki Tsunoda’s Red Bull at the tunnel exit on lap nine and limping back to the pits with the front left wheel hanging off.

“Is he an idiot, what is he doing?” exclaimed Tsunoda.

Gasly, who said he had no brakes, almost took out Argentine rookie team-mate Franco Colapinto as he careered through the Nouvelle Chicane.

Aston Martin’s double world champion Fernando Alonso was the second retirement, pulling off on lap 38 with a smoking car to continue his scoreless run for the season.

Published in Dawn, May 26th, 2025