Kimi Antonelli claimed his fifth victory from six races to extend his championship lead, while a brake failure robbed Charles Leclerc of a podium finish at his home Grand Prix in one of the most turbulent afternoons Monte Carlo has seen in years.
The Mercedes driver dominated a fractured, chaotic afternoon in Monte Carlo, matching Lewis Hamilton’s run of five straight wins with the Brackley-based squad. Hamilton finished second, with Isack Hadjar completing the podium after post-race penalties were applied.
A race of two crashes
The race was red-flagged on lap 68 of 78 after the track surface appeared to break up at the final corner, the incident triggered by Lance Stroll’s retirement followed by Leclerc crashing at the same spot on the subsequent safety car restart.
Television cameras cut quickly to Ferrari’s car number 16 in the exact same spot where Stroll had gone in. Leclerc, visibly anguished, hit his steering wheel in frustration.
Leclerc blamed brake problems he described as undrivable, stating: “It’s just undrivable.”
His fury was barely contained over the team radio, where he made clear where he placed responsibility. “Honestly, I’m not even going to take the fucking blame,” he said. “These fucking brakes!”
A weekend-long struggle
The crash did not come out of nowhere. Leclerc had spoken openly throughout the weekend about being “struggling massively” with the Ferrari’s “extremely inconsistent” braking, an issue tied to tyre temperature and what he described as “another issue.” “At the moment it’s a bit of a discovery whenever I get on the brakes,” he said on Saturday.
The same problem had occurred in Canada the previous weekend, turning his last two races into a mechanical ordeal. His teammate Lewis Hamilton had reportedly adopted a different car configuration for the previous three or four grands prix. “Lewis went in that direction three or four races ago,” Leclerc acknowledged after the race. “I think it made a difference on other circuits, but today it was just undrivable for me.”
Looking to Barcelona
Speaking in the TV media pen after his retirement, Leclerc described himself as “extremely disappointed, sad, angry, mixed off negative emotions.”
He told Canal+ that he did not want to speak at length for fear of being too harsh in his words, adding: “That’s unacceptable. The brake problems I’ve had the last two weekends… It’s just undrivable.” Despite the bitterness, he looked ahead: “Things will be different for Barcelona; I hope to rediscover my feeling with the car.”
For Antonelli, the result leaves him still two races adrift of Nico Rosberg’s record of consecutive wins with Mercedes, but firmly in command of the championship heading to Spain. For Leclerc, a second successive mechanical retirement on home soil leaves unresolved questions about Ferrari’s ability to solve a brake inconsistency that has now cost him dearly in back-to-back weekends.
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Photo source: Scuderia Ferrari Media Centre