Mercedes driver Kimi Antonelli scored his fifth-consecutive win of the 2026 F1 season with a convincing victory in the Monaco Grand Prix to take a commanding lead in the driver’s championship.
The Italian started from pole and led every lap in the tiny principality, cruising to an easy win to become the youngest-ever Monaco winner despite a couple of late restarts that threatened to ruin his day.
“It’s been an incredible weekend, incredible race. It was one of those days where we had so incredible pace and it was just coming all so natural and the car was feeling incredible and it just was giving me the confidence to push. It was a very enjoyable day,” said Antonelli, who left Monaco with a 66-point lead in the driver’s championship after six races. “The job’s not finished. It’s still a long season and we’ve got to keep pushing, keep raising the bar. And the goal is to keep performing like this.”
In the end, Antonelli’s 6.271-second margin of victory definitely gives the impression of a close race, but before the safety car neutralized the action late in the running, it looked like he’d cross the line more than 30 seconds ahead of his nearest rival and lap everyone but the podium finishers.
Instead, two late crashes in Turn 19 saw a safety car and a red flag tighten up the field before a final sprint to the finish.
While they couldn’t challenge Antonelli, both Ferraris continued their improved pace since an upgrade in Miami two races ago, although Charles Leclerc’s race came to an abrupt end from third when he hit the wall in the last stages and brought out a red flag. Canadian Lance Stroll in the Aston Martin caused the safety car period with an earlier crash in the same spot.
Leclerc’s teammate Lewis Hamilton avoided trouble and delivered one of his best races in the scarlet car, coming home second and leapfrogging George Russell for second spot in the championship standings by two points, 90-88.
“I was thinking about winning. I was thinking about getting him [Antonelli] at the beginning — unfortunately, we both basically got pretty much the same starts. I think I gained on him just a little bit and I was almost to his rear wheel, but not enough to pop me in the lead and then, as we got going, I just got to see him pull away,” said Hamilton. “I think we’ve been progressing over the past months and can’t quite keep up with [Mercedes] just yet — and it’s probably going to take a lot of work for us to get to their level — but to get another second place is such a great feeling, especially in Monaco, under the trickiest conditions.”
Hamilton moved into second as soon as the lights went out when Max Verstappen experienced a terminal failure immediately off the start from the front row and retired.
With the No. 1 Red Bull Racing driver out, all eyes turned to Isack Hadjar, who did not disappoint. The young Frenchman drove a solid race to take his second-career podium despite having car problems throughout most of the race.
“I think very early, from I would say Lap 12, something like that, I started having driveability issues and it was just undriveable,” he said. “In Monaco, especially here, it’s not like you can allow yourself to skip using first gear, second gear, and this is where the problem was. It was very hard to drive. I was down on power at some point. Also on the final restart, on that start, still need to figure out our problems, but I kept pushing and we’re here. I’m happy.”
Meanwhile, Russell struggled in qualifying and only started fifth, and things unraveled from there. Two penalties eventually led to his undoing as he failed to serve the sanctions in his pitstop as required and got slapped with a drive-thru penalty. He ended the day 12th.
“It’s tough to take but I’m not going to give up,” said Russell. “Across the last two races, I’ve effectively lost around 40 points. It’s incredibly frustrating but the rest of the season can still look very different. We saw that last year and, in many seasons previous. It’s unfortunate how things have played out so far but I’m aiming to bounce back [in the next race] in Barcelona.”
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