Monaco Grand Prix: Unstoppable Kimi Antonelli masterclass amid penalty chaos

Sunday, 07 June 2026 at 17:27

Mercedes driver Kimi Antonelli won the 2026 Monaco Grand Prix from pole amid Safety Car and Red Flag drama with penalties galore.

Antonelli started the race from pole after a blistering lap in Qualifying on Saturday and finished the job with a decent start to the race as Verstappen bogged down with engine issues while Lewis Hamilton and Charles Leclerc could not attack as the lights went green.

With Verstappen out of the way, Antonelli set off building the gap as neither Hamilton nor Leclerc seemed to have the pace to take the fight to the Formula 1 Championship who raced on into the distance with ease.

Verstappen is slow away from P2 on the grid! 😳

Here's how the race start unfolded in Monaco! 👇#F1 #MonacoGP pic.twitter.com/yxVElkRWoa
— Formula 1 (@F1) June 7, 2026

After that, the race went on being a procession with no car able to make a pass with the only drama coming from numerous penalties dished out for speeding in the pitlane.

Hamilton, George Russell, Pierre Gasly, Oscar Piastri, Franco Colapinto all got served with 5s time penalties for the aforementioned transgression.

There was some drama for Isack Hadjar who suffered from engine issues while Lando Norris had to retire with an engine issue as well on Lap 45.

And just as we thought the race is going to end with Antonelli cruising to the flag, Lance Stroll decided to spice up the show and rammed his Aston Martin into the barriers on Lap 60 at Antony Noghes.

⚠️ SAFETY CAR ⚠️

STROLL IS IN THE WALL! 😱

The pit lane is about to get busy...#F1 #MonacoGP | LAP 60/78 pic.twitter.com/RzeERFpSRH
— Formula 1 (@F1) June 7, 2026

That brought out the Safety Car as drivers started diving into the pits for fresh tyres.

Antonelli, Hamilton, Leclerc, Russell, and Piastri pit. Hamilton served his penalty and took on Softs as Leclerc also took the same compound while not being happy with the stop.

The Monegasque was within 5s of his teammate and as hoping to take second off him.

Piastri also served his penalty while Russell bizarrely didn't which was the subject of a tense conversation between the Briton and his team.

📻 "Have I served my penalty?"

Russell may not have served his five second penalty in the pit box, amidst the flurry of stops 👀#F1 #MonacoGP | LAP 64/78 pic.twitter.com/B0W2xrP2g0
— Formula 1 (@F1) June 7, 2026

He was then under investigation for failing to serve the penalty. He was consequently slapped with a drive through penalty.

The race was restarted on Lap 65 and Antonelli led the pack with Hamilton chasing, but all soon came to a halt again, as Leclerc ended up in the barriers at the final corner.

The local hero was fuming over the radio, insisting that was not his fault and blaming the brakes he has been complaining about all weekend long.

Onboard with Charles Leclerc for his crash, prior to the Red Flag! 👇#F1 #MonacoGP pic.twitter.com/VdOHk9FSRM
— Formula 1 (@F1) June 7, 2026

But the Safety Car was out again and soon it turned into a Red Flag on Lap 68 as it appeared there was an issue with the track breaking up at Turn 19.

With ten laps remaining, race control announced: "Field will reform in correct order under Safety Car for one or two laps followed by a standing start. Lapped cars to be released first."

The starting order was: Antonelli - Hamilton - Hadjar - Russell - Gasly - Piastri - Liam Lawson - Arvid Lindblad - Alex Albon - Carlos Sainz.

Antonelli kept his lead from Hamilton as Hadjar dropped back with Russell and Gasly passing him.

⚫️⚫️⚫️⚫️⚫️

WE'RE BACK UNDERWAY!

Antonelli holds off Hamilton at Turn 1 🙌#F1 #MonacoGP | LAP 71/78 pic.twitter.com/ZvLU14UrHZ
— Formula 1 (@F1) June 7, 2026

But Russell suddenly slowed down and backed the pack which caused chaos behind and as a result Sainz spun after contact with Nico Hulkenberg and then Colapinto.

From there, Antonelli went on, keeping Hamilton at bay to take his fifth consecutive win of the 2026 F1 season, the Briton having to settle for second, which is not bad given he dodged that 5s penalty by serving it under the Safety Car.

The seven-time F1 Champion also escaped a penalty for a Safety Car violation as he was suspected to have kept more than ten cars' length between behind Antonelli.

While Gasly took P3 at the flag, two 5s penalties meant he dropped down to seventh. However, the Frenchman was under investigation for a Red Flag infringement which was going to be investigated after the race.

Apparently, Hadjar's mechanics were doing work on his car under the Red Flag, work which wasn't allowed under the regulations.

Behind the top three

Piastri finished the race in fourth which may become third if Hadjar gets a penalty on a tough 1000th Grand Prix for McLaren which saw them suffer from performance and reliability issues.

Lawson took fifth for the Racing Bulls, which was a solid performance after driving cleanly from third as Lindblad was sixth in the sister car, the rookie benefitting from the second Safety Car after missing out on the first.

With Gasly eventually in seventh, Albon survived earlier Williams tactical shenanigans to take eighth as the team missed out on double points with Sainz's contact with Hulkenberg at the restart dropping him to 16th but was classified as DNF.

Within the chaos of the restart, Sainz was pushed into the wall at the hairpin... 💥

Then further contact at Portier spun the Williams around! 😱#F1 #MonacoGP | LAP 72/78 pic.twitter.com/RxeWo6FmUs
— Formula 1 (@F1) June 7, 2026

It was ninth place for Esteban Ocon, a satisfying result starting from 17th after Haas' struggles while Oliver Bearman retired with car issues.

Hulkenberg was supposed to be in P10, but a 10s penalty for crashing into Sainz dropped him out of the points.

That meant Sergio Perez was promoted to tenth which meant Cadillac's first points, but it was never that simple in Monaco today as the Mexican was under investigation for positioning his car wrongly in the pit box.

If Perez gets penalized, Fernando Alonso will get tenth!

A final word on Russell. What a tough weekend that was for him. Way off Antonelli in terms of pace and being hit with two penalties which meant he was 14th.

But the most painful moment for the Briton must have been when he was lapped by his teammate during the race... He is now 68 points behind his teammate and also dropped to third with Hamilton taking second place for now.

What the top three said

After becoming the youngest F1 driver to win Monaco, Antonelli said: "It's been an incredible weekend, an incredible race. It was one of those days we had incredible pace. It was all so natural.

"The car was feeling incredible and giving me the confidence to push. It was a very enjoyable day.

"The job isn't finished," the Italian said of the Championship. "It's still a long season. We have to keep pushing and raising the bar. The goal is to keep performing like this. The team has done an incredible job. They have given us an incredible car.

"I've got so much support from the team and my family, it's a really good moment," he maintained.

Speaking about the stress of the restarts, Antonelli explained: "I wasn't super keen on restarting! I didn't really want to restart but once the notification came out I gathered my emotions, thoughts and started to focus again, looked at some data and tried to focus on restarting.

"I tried to get the tyres into the right temperature. Once I got away, I knew I would make it into the first corner and from that moment I enjoyed the last few laps," the 19-year-old concluded.

Flawless. 👆😮💨#F1 #MonacoGP pic.twitter.com/IBLr6LCI29
— Formula 1 (@F1) June 7, 2026

Hamilton also matched a record by taking second place as he now has the same number of podiums in Monaco as his idol, the late Ayrton Senna.

The Ferrari man said: “I have to start by congratulating Kimi and to the Mercedes team, my old family, they’ve done it again, they’ve created an amazing car.

“And Kimi’s doing an incredible job, just delivering weekend in, weekend out. It’s great to see and I’m really happy for them.

“On our side, I think we’ve been progressing over the past months, and can’t quite keep up with them 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 – it was the hardest conditions out there! I’ll definitely take it," Hamilton concluded.

That’s P2 in Monaco for Lewis!! 🔥 pic.twitter.com/zq3O3qy9nA
— Scuderia Ferrari HP (@ScuderiaFerrari) June 7, 2026

While his position was not confirmed at the time of the interview, Hadjar added: "We got off to a clean start. We were managing the race and within the first 10 to 15 laps I had massive driveability issues.

"If there's one track you don't want that, it's here. It was incredibly challenging having to cover 60 laps like that.

"Even towards the end I was still lacking power on the restart. I never had to send it that much in the corners.

"An outstanding weekend considering how it started in first practice [with a crash]. I had no confidence to get back up, but we did it," he concluded.