BEIJING, June 8 — Mercedes’ Kimi Antonelli survived a late-race restart to win Sunday’s Monaco Grand Prix, claiming his fifth consecutive victory and extending his lead in the 2026 Formula 1 World Championship.
The Italian started from pole position after an inspired qualifying performance on Saturday and had controlled a largely processional race when the safety car was deployed on lap 60 after Lance Stroll clipped the barriers at the Antony Noghes corner. When racing resumed six laps later, Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc crashed at the same corner, triggering another safety car period before the race was red-flagged with eight laps remaining. The track surface at the final corner appeared to have broken up slightly, although both Leclerc and Stroll later said the condition of the circuit had not contributed to their accidents. While the red flag wiped out Antonelli’s sizeable advantage, the Mercedes driver comfortably held off Lewis Hamilton at the restart to secure a victory his dominant performance had fully deserved.”It’s been an incredible weekend, an incredible race. It was one of those days where we had an incredible pace. It all felt so natural,” Antonelli said. “The car felt incredible and gave me the confidence to push. It was a very enjoyable day.”I wasn’t particularly keen on restarting. I didn’t really want the restart, but once the notification came through, I gathered my thoughts, looked at some data and focused on what I needed to do.”I tried to get the tyres into the right temperature window. Once I got away, I knew I would make it into the first corner, and from that moment I enjoyed the final few laps.”
Antonelli now holds a 66-point lead in the drivers’ standings and is the first driver in F1 history to win his first five grands prix consecutively. Hamilton finished second for Ferrari, which had been widely regarded as the favorite heading into the weekend but had no answer to Antonelli’s pace. Red Bull’s Isack Hadjar completed the podium despite spending much of the race complaining about power unit issues. The Frenchman benefited from a high attrition rate and a series of post-race penalties. It was another difficult weekend for Antonelli’s teammate George Russell. After having retired from the lead in Canada, the Briton was unable to match Antonelli’s pace in Monaco and finished outside the points after serving a drive-through penalty following the lap-70 restart. Russell, who had been widely viewed as a preseason title favorite, now trails Antonelli by 68 points in the championship standings.
Other notable drivers to fail to score included Red Bull’s Max Verstappen, who qualified second but almost stalled at the start before pulling out on the opening lap with an apparent loss of power. Defending Monaco winner Lando Norris also failed to finish, retiring his McLaren from eighth place on lap 45 with a power unit problem. Norris’ teammate Oscar Piastri was fourth on McLaren’s 1,000th grand prix weekend, although the British outfit struggled for pace throughout the event. Racing Bulls celebrated a breakthrough result as Liam Lawson and Arvid Lindblad recorded the best finishes of their careers in fifth and sixth, respectively. Alpine’s Pierre Gasly crossed the line third but dropped to seventh after receiving a 10-second penalty. Williams’ Alex Albon finished eighth ahead of Esteban Ocon in his Haas, and Fernando Alonso scored his and Aston Martin’s first point of a difficult season in tenth. The Formula 1 season continues with the Barcelona-Catalunya Grand Prix at Montmelo, Spain, on June 14.
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