| 2021 Monaco Grand Prix | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Race 5 of 22[a] in the2021 Formula One World Championship
| |||||
 Layout of the Circuit de Monte Carlo, Monaco | |||||
| Race details[2] | |||||
| Date | 23 May 2021 | ||||
| Official name | Formula 1Grand Prix de Monaco 2021 | ||||
| Location | Circuit de Monaco La Condamine andMonte Carlo,Monaco | ||||
| Course | Street circuit | ||||
| Course length | 3.337 km (2.074 miles) | ||||
| Distance | 78 laps, 260.286 km (161.734 miles) | ||||
| Weather | Sunny | ||||
| Pole position | |||||
| Driver | Ferrari | ||||
| Time | 1:10.346 | ||||
| Fastest lap | |||||
| Driver |  Lewis Hamilton | Mercedes | |||
| Time | 1:12.909 on lap 69(lap record) | ||||
| Podium | |||||
| First | Red Bull Racing-Honda | ||||
| Second | Ferrari | ||||
| Third | McLaren-Mercedes | ||||
Lap leaders | |||||
The2021 Monaco Grand Prix (officially known as theFormula 1 Grand Prix de Monaco 2021) was aFormula One motor race held on 23 May 2021 at theCircuit de Monaco, astreet circuit that runs through thePrincipality of Monaco. It was the fifth round of the2021 Formula One World Championship, the 78th time that theMonaco Grand Prix was held, and the first time it had been held since2019 after the2020 round was cancelled due to theCOVID-19 pandemic. The 78-lap race was won byMax Verstappen (Red Bull Racing) after polesitterCharles Leclerc of (Ferrari), who crashed in qualifying, failed to start the race with a driveshaft problem. The podium was rounded off by Leclerc's teammateCarlos Sainz Jr. andLando Norris (McLaren).Lewis Hamilton, who was leading the Drivers' Championship forMercedes, finished seventh, allowing his title rival Verstappen to take the lead of the championship for the first time in his career.
This race marked the 750th race start for theWilliams team, and to celebrate the occasion, Williams placed the names of 100 Williams supporters on the halo of their car, theFW43B.[4]McLaren also ran a special one-offGulf Racing–inspired livery for the event, to celebrate their collaboration started in the 1960s.[5][6]
The drivers and teams were the same as the season entry list with no additional stand-in drivers for the race.[7]
Tyre supplierPirelli brought theC3, C4 and C5 tyre compounds (designated hard, medium and soft respectively) for teams to use at the event.[8]
Charles Leclerc qualified on pole despite crashing in the final minutes of Q3, whilstMax Verstappen joined him on the front row having qualified second,Valtteri Bottas shared the second row withCarlos Sainz having qualified third and fourth respectively.Lando Norris had his best qualifying result of the season and qualified fifth. Championship leaderLewis Hamilton had his worst qualifying since the2018 German Grand Prix, and qualified outside the top two for the first time in 2021, qualifying seventh.[9]Mick Schumacher was not able to participate in qualifying due to a heavy crash in the final practice session.[10]
Ferrari inspectedCharles Leclerc's car overnight after his crash in qualifying. The primary concern was Leclerc's gearbox, but it was cleared, and it was expected that Leclerc would start on pole. On race day, Leclerc brought the car out from the pits on the reconnaissance lap out to the grid, and a failure in the left driveshaft was detected. There was not enough time to repair the problem before the race, and thus Leclerc did not start in the race.[15] Ferrari later discovered the issue was caused by a cracked left-rear driveshaft hub.[16]
Due to Leclerc's failure to start the race, pole position on the grid was left empty, leavingMax Verstappen as thede facto polesitter, though he lined up in the second grid position. At the start of the raceValtteri Bottas got away slightly better than Verstappen, but the latter was able to cover off the former to take the lead into the first corner. Bottas later retired at his scheduled pitstop on lap 30, when his team was unable to remove his right front wheel due to a stripped wheel nut, promotingCarlos Sainz to second place andLando Norris to third.[17]
Verstappen pitted for fresh tyres on lap 34.Sergio Pérez led most of lap 35 before being called into the pits at the end of the same lap, and this meant that Verstappen officially led all laps through the pit stops. Pérez used pit strategy to improve to fourth, which is where he finished the race. The podium was formed by the same drivers in those positions at the halfway point of the race: Verstappen in the lead, Sainz in second, and Norris in third. Pérez, in fourth, closed in on Norris but was unable to pass him before the race ended.Sebastian Vettel andAntonio Giovinazzi scored their first points of the season, finishing fifth forAston Martin and 10th forAlfa Romeo, respectively. This was also Alfa Romeo's first point of the season.[18][19]Lewis Hamilton, in seventh, used a late race tyre change to challenge for the race'sfastest lap, earning one extra championship point.
Three former Monaco Grand Prix winners,Kimi Räikkönen,Daniel Ricciardo, andFernando Alonso, all finished one lap down on race winner Verstappen and out of the points in 11th, 12th and 13th places respectively.[18][19] Verstappen's and Pérez's high points haul, along with Bottas' retirement and Hamilton's seventh-place finish, was sufficient to propelRed Bull into the lead in the Constructors' Championship, and Verstappen into the lead in the Drivers' Championship. This was the first time since the2018 British Grand Prix thatMercedes had not led either championship. It was also the first time Verstappen was the points leader in his Formula One career.[20] The FIA said it was open to suggesting layout changes for the future to the improve the on track excitement at the venue, after the race provided just one on-track overtake.[21][d]
Mercedes team boss,Toto Wolff admitted they had suffered a disastrous weekend.[23] McLaren admitted it had not expected to be competitive enough for a podium result.[24] In the aftermath of Leclerc's qualifying crash, FIA race director Michael Masi stated the FIA was looking into the possibility of introducing a rule where drivers who cause red flags in qualifying have their lap times deleted, to avoid the possibility of drivers crashing intentionally to prevent other drivers improving, though Masi said he was convinced Leclerc's qualifying crash was a genuine driver error.[25]Télé Monte Carlo's broadcast direction was criticized after cutting away from Vettel's duel withPierre Gasly on lap 32 to a replay ofLance Stroll hitting a kerb on the exit of the Piscine Pool. The video became aninternet meme.[26]
|
| ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Previous race: 2021 Spanish Grand Prix | FIA Formula One World Championship 2021 season | Next race: 2021 Azerbaijan Grand Prix |
| Previous race: 2019 Monaco Grand Prix | Monaco Grand Prix | Next race: 2022 Monaco Grand Prix |
