Hamilton fends off Verstappen for Monaco GP victory

Lewis Hamilton extended his lead at the top of the Formula 1 drivers' championship after fending off Red Bull's Max Verstappen to win Sunday's Monaco Grand Prix for Mercedes.

At the end of an emotional weekend for Mercedes following the death of non-executive chairman Niki Lauda earlier this week, Hamilton honoured the three-time world champion in style by going lights-to-flag for the win in Monaco, albeit after late contact with Verstappen.

Verstappen put pressure on Hamilton throughout the race, but could not find a way past the Mercedes driver, and ultimately dropped to fourth in the final classification due to a time penalty for an incident in the pit lane. The touch between Verstappen and Hamilton is set to be investigated by the stewards after the race.

Hamilton made a perfect start to retain his lead ahead of Mercedes teammate Valtteri Bottas, who narrowly held on to P2 ahead of a fast-starting Verstappen on the run down to Turn 1.

Verstappen was unable to hassle the Mercedes drivers through the opening stages of the race, with the main action coming courtesy of Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc, who had started down in P15 after a mistake by the team in qualifying.

The hometown driver was able to make up a number of places in the opening few laps, passing Lando Norris at the hairpin before diving down the inside of Romain Grosjean at La Rascasse to rise up to 12th place.

However, an overzealous attempt to get ahead of Nico Hulkenberg at La Rascasse one lap after he passed Grosjean saw Leclerc touch the inside of the wall on the right-hand side, causing a puncture and a subsequent tyre failure.

Leclerc limped back to the pits, but left debris strewn across the track, sparking a Safety Car period that slowed the field on Lap 11. Leclerc was able to make the restart, but ultimately retired from the race a few laps later due to damage.

The leading drivers took advantage of the Safety Car to come into the pits, with both Mercedes coming in on the same lap. Hamilton was able to retain his lead, but Bottas lost a place after a touch with Verstappen in the pit lane. While Verstappen had managed to grab P2, he was also handed a five-second time penalty for an unsafe pit release. Bottas was also forced into pitting for a second time due to a suspected puncture, dropping him to fourth and handing P3 to Sebastian Vettel.

Hamilton negotiated the restart on Lap 15 without any problems, but could not shake Verstappen off. Running on Mediums, Hamilton was wary of making his tyres last to the end, and aired his concerns to the Mercedes pit wall on a number of occasions, saying at one stage he thought he was in “big trouble”. However, he was reassured by his engineer that he would be able to make it to the end, with Verstappen behind on Hards having no such concerns.

Verstappen was able to stay on Hamilton’s tail as he looked to try and gap Vettel and Bottas to make up for the time penalty, with a chance to serve it in the pits looking unlikely. Light spots of rain also came and went through the race, adding to the challenge the drivers were facing.

Hamilton continued to question Mercedes’ tyre call as Verstappen drew closer and closer in the final stages, with the Briton forced to defend boldly at the hairpin on two separate occasions after his rival was given the call to turn up his engine.

With three laps to go, Verstappen got a better launch than Hamilton out of Portier and tried sending his car up the inside at the Nouvelle Chicane, only for Hamilton to drift across and defend, with the two making contact. The stewards quickly confirmed that the incident was under investigation.

It proved to be Verstappen’s last chance to try and pass Hamilton on-track, with the Mercedes driver staying ahead to the chequered flag to record – provisionally – his third victory around the streets of Monaco.

Verstappen dropped down to fourth place after his time penalty was applied, promoting Sebastian Vettel up into P2 for Ferrari, ending Mercedes’ streak of one-two finishes to start the season as Bottas was left to settle for P3.

Pierre Gasly had a lonely race for Red Bull en route to P5, but took advantage of a large gap to the midfield runners to pit late on and set the fastest lap on a fresh set of Soft tyres, giving him a bonus point.

Carlos Sainz Jr. won the midfield fight for McLaren after opting to stay out under the early Safety Car, not pitting until Lap 30. Slow laps from Lando Norris bunched a number of the early stoppers, allowing Toro Rosso drivers Daniil Kvyat and Alexander Albon to jump Daniel Ricciardo for P7 and P8 respectively.

Ricciardo had also lost a place to Haas’ Romain Grosjean, but regained ninth on the final lap after Grosjean was hit with a five-second time penalty for crossing the white line at pit exit, leaving him in P10.

Norris finished 11th ahead of Kevin Magnussen, the latter under investigation for cutting the chicane to stay ahead of Sergio Perez during a mid-race fight with the Racing Point driver. Perez finished 0.9 seconds behind Magnussen at the chequered flag.

George Russell put in an impressive display for Williams to finish 15th ahed of Lance Stroll and Kimi Raikkonen, with Robert Kubica taking P18 for Williams. Antonio Giovinazzi was the last classified finisher in P19, leaving Leclerc as the sole retiree.