Lando Norris won his second Formula One race of the season on Sunday, riding his pole position at the Monaco Grand Prix to victory.
Norris took over the lead on the second-to-last lap after race leader and defending circuit champion Max Verstappen of the Netherlands was forced to take his second required pit stop on the penultimate lap. The Red Bull driver’s strategy to delay the stop didn’t pay off as he finished a distant fourth.
In second was Monaco native and defending champion Charles Leclerc of Ferrari (+3.131 seconds back), with Oscar Piastri of McLaren (+3.658), the season’s points leader, in third.
“It feels amazing. It’s a long race, a long, grueling race,” said Norris, a 25-year-old from England. “We could push for the whole race, and we won in Monaco. An amazing weekend with pole, with today. This is what we dream of, this is what I did dream of as a kid.”
With his victory, Norris is now just three points behind Piastri in the driver standings, with Verstappen 25 points back.
Norris had Verstappen in front of him and Leclerc pushing from behind at the end, and Norris felt the pressure. Still, Leclerc could not overtake Norris.
Leclerc finished just a tenth of a second behind Norris in qualifying on Saturday, and the 27-year-old said that made all the difference in the race.
“At the end of the day, we lost the race yesterday. We should have done a better job, Lando did a better job and he deserves the win,” Leclerc said. “It is above our expectations here, I thought we would struggle to be in the top 10 so it has been a good weekend. But I wish I’d won.
“Being born here, seeing all the Monegasque behind me is very special. It warms my heart to be at home and have so much support.”
It was the second podium finish this season for Leclerc, whose best finish had been third in Saudi Arabia last month.
Piastri, a 24-year-old Australian, entered Sunday with four season victories.
“Obviously the win would have been better, but it has been a tricky weekend,” he said. “Practice was messy all the way through. I got into qualifying with not a lot of confidence. I got close but not close enough, and you run around here where you started. A podium in Monaco — it’s not all bad.
“The margins are so fine, if this is a bad weekend, then it is not going too badly at all.”
Ferrari’s Lewis Hamilton finished fifth.
–Field Level Media
