Antonelli wins penalty-riddled Monaco Grand Prix from Hamilton and Gasly after late red flag from Leclerc’s crash
- Meghana Sree
- Jun 7
- 7 min read
Updated: Jun 14
The Monaco Grand Prix delivered drama galore, as we returned to the principality for the sixth round of the 2026 season.
A shock Lap 1 retirement for Max Verstappen after stalling at the start, a tragic crash at home from Charles Leclerc bringing out a late red flag, and penalties everywhere you looked all made this one of the most chaotic races Monaco has hosted in recent history.
Antonelli sailed through the melee with ease and calm, taking an unprecedented fifth consecutive victory on the storied streets of Monte Carlo. Lewis Hamilton joined him for a second consecutive podium with Ferrari, while Isack Hadjar claimed his second Formula One top three finish on the road but lost it a week later to Pierre Gasly whose penalties were rescinded after a Right of Review submitted by Alpine.
Meanwhile, it was a miserable afternoon for championship hopeful George Russell, who started from sixth and was slammed with penalties throughout the afternoon, dropping him down to 14th by the end of the race, the second last of the classified drivers only ahead of Franco Colapinto. Fellow British driver Lando Norris also didn't fare well, retiring from the race with an engine failure.
With seven retirements and penalties everywhere you looked, here's how a riveting Monaco Grand Prix played out.
Race Report
The top 15 were all on mediums, no one in that range brave enough to go for the alternate strategy that a few drivers had opted for, starting on the softs.
With so much on the line, Antonelli led the grid off as the five lights went out, getting a clean getaway but Verstappen, closest competitor for the win, immediately stalled from second on the grid. The Dutchman dropped to 20th, then trundled back to the pits, his race over before the first lap.
Meanwhile, Pierre Gasly had an electric start from ninth, bolting up past Norris into seventh, while by Lap 5, Antonelli had cleared Hamilton by four seconds already.
Russell on the other hand had been noted for a false start, pinged by Norris over the radio, but fortunately for the Mercedes driver the incident was dismissed with no further investigation.
With Verstappen now out of the race, Antonelli was no doubt breathing easier in the lead. As we headed into Lap 10, the key battle on track was between Gasly and Norris, the defending champion chasing the Alpine driver for seventh.
At the bottom end of the grid, Cadillac’s dismal weekend continued as Valtteri Bottas reported smoke from his brakes and Sergio Pérez was handed a costly drive-through penalty for being out of position at the race start.
By Lap 13, the leaders had caught up to the backmarkers, as Nico Hülkenberg entered the pits, trying to trigger a new round of stops. Two laps later, the top 10 was occupied by Antonelli, Hamilton, Leclerc, Hadjar, Russell, Oscar Piastri, Gasly, Norris, Liam Lawson and Alex Albon.
On Lap 18, Bottas was put out of his misery as he returned to the pits to become the second retirement of the day.
By that point, Hamilton radioed in saying that the tyre degradation was very high, several drivers including Hadjar corroborating his concerns.
Meanwhile, the gap out front had begun to ebb and flow with traffic coming their way. From three seconds back to four, Antonelli continued to keep a buffer to Hamilton. A few places back in fourth, the sole remaining Red Bull of Hadjar was having a stressful race, ominously stating “something is going to explode” as he struggled with low power and a faulty first gear.
He still managed to keep Russell behind him, though the Briton was steadily closing in. The lead Mercedes driver meanwhile had eked out the gap to nearly seven seconds.
Back at Red Bull, Hadjar had been told that there was currently no fix to his car’s issues, adding more frustration to his afternoon as he was forced to nurse his car around the streets of Monaco.
On Lap 28, Antonelli had extended the gap to 12 seconds over Hamilton. The Ferrari driver then took his first stop of the day, a handy two-second stop that allowed him to rejoin the track in third on the hard tyres.
Meanwhile, Oliver Bearman became the next retirement after carrying opening lap damage from contact with his teammate Esteban Ocon — not the first time the Haas drivers had crossed wires this weekend.
Russell took his stop on Lap 32, after being unable to pass Hadjar on track. The Red Bull driver immediately responded the following lap, the two drivers now seventh and eighth on the track, Russell ahead.
Meanwhile, Hamilton had received a five-second time penalty for speeding in the pitlane, while his teammate Leclerc took his first stop.
Further back, Norris had begun to drop back after yet another reliability issue plaguing his power unit, but fortunately for him, McLaren could manage the issue for the time being.
Antonelli took a clean stop on Lap 38, but it was more rotten luck for Russell as he was slammed with a five-second time penalty for the same reason as Hamilton’s.
On Lap 40, the top 10 was led by Antonelli, followed by Hamilton 16 seconds behind, Leclerc, Piastri, Gasly, Norris, Russell, Hadjar, Lawson and Albon.
Norris became the fourth retirement of the afternoon after McLaren’s issues aggravated.
Meanwhile, team orders for Williams promoted Sainz to ninth while Albon took 10th, everyone’s positions promoted after Norris’ retirement. The battle for the final points was now being fought between both Williams drivers, Arvid Lindblad and potentially Hülkenberg too.
A lock-up from Albon rearranged the order to Sainz in ninth followed by Lindblad, Albon, and Hülkenberg.
Yet another driver was then given a penalty for speeding in the pitlane, this time Gasly, in a strange pattern of events. Piastri became the latest victim of this too on Lap 56.
With 20 laps to go, Lindblad was the only driver yet to stop.
Meanwhile, Antonelli had lapped Russell, which had to feel sobering for the Briton. On Lap 60, the narrative of the race changed as Lance Stroll crashed at Antony Noghes, bringing out the Safety Car. All cars were ordered to drive through the pitlane, all cars with penalties serving them.
As the cars had made their stops and went back out on track behind the Safety Car, it appeared that Russell had not served his earlier time penalty.
The Safety Car continued into Lap 64, the top 10 now Antonelli, Hamilton, Leclerc, Hadjar, Russell, Gasly, Piastri, Lawson, Lindblad and Albon.
The following lap, we returned to green flag racing, but it was a tragic turn of events for Leclerc as he crashed in the same place as Stroll earlier, bringing out the Safety Car once more. The home hero returned to his garage absolutely fuming, the usually self-critical driver stating over the radio that he wasn’t even going to take the blame for this one, complaining of faulty brakes.
With 10 laps to go, the red flag was dropped, bringing the session to a standstill. During the pause, Hadjar was noted for a Safety Car infringement and Russell for not serving his penalty correctly.
Tragically for the Mercedes driver, a drive-through penalty was issued for him, taking his weekend from bad to worse.
As the race resumed after a prolonged red flag period, the standing start order was confirmed as Antonelli, Hamilton, Hadjar, Russell, Gasly, Piastri, Lawson, Lindblad, Albon and Sainz.
On Lap 70 of 78, the second start of the Monaco Grand Prix was controlled effortlessly by Antonelli, keeping Hamilton at bay. Hadjar had a poor getaway, tumbling to fifth, while Russell behind began to back everyone up, bunching up the midfield.
This then immediately led to chaos behind, as Hülkenberg then Colapinto tapped Sainz, taking the Williams driver out of the race after being hit by two cars and ending his career-long streak of always scoring points in Monaco.
It was absolute bedlam across the field as Hülkenberg brushed close to the second Williams of Albon too, but fortunately the two cars escaped unscathed.
Up in the lead, Antonelli was two seconds ahead of Hamilton, Gasly in third but with a penalty looming over him.
The final lap saw Antonelli cruise to victory, winning his fifth consecutive F1 race from Hamilton, who took a second consecutive podium with Ferrari. Gasly completed the podium post-race, as Hadjar settled for fourth.
After all the penalties were applied, the rest of the points-scorers were Piastri, Lawson, Lindblad, Albon, Ocon, and Alonso — the Spaniard scoring Aston Martin's first ever point of the 2026 season.
Championship Standings
There have been quite a few shakeups in the standings, most notably, Russell drops down to third while Hamilton takes his place in second. Russell now has a 68-point deficit to his teammate who is racing ahead of the rest on 156 points.
Leclerc's retirement sees him fall to fourth, after holding third ahead of the weekend. Meanwhile, Hadjar's podium means that he's vaulted up to eighth all the way down from 12th, now 14 points behind teammate Verstappen in seventh.
Up Next
No time to breathe after that one, as we head to Barcelona next week, the first of the two Spanish rounds this year. Catch all the action from June 12th to 14th as Antonelli chases more records and Russell will attempt to claw back to the top.
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