Norris withstands pressure from home hero Leclerc to seal Monaco victory

Meghana Sree
3 hours ago
5 min read

Written by Meghana Sree

Lando Norris claimed his second win of the season at the Monaco Grand Prix after surviving Charles Leclerc’s relentless hunt for home victory, with Oscar Piastri completing the podium and clinging on to the championship lead by just three points.

Lando Norris clinches Mclaren's first Monaco win since 2008 | Credit: Formula One

A race with plenty of strategic unknowns going into it, the 2025 Monaco Grand Prix had more buzz around it than usual owing to the mandatory two-stop rule introduced for this round, in an effort to spice up racing action.

The glamorous venue that wraps around the Monte Carlo harbour has been on the Formula One calendar since its inception in 1950, and this year’s Grand Prix was won by McLaren’s Lando Norris after sweating out an intense chase from Charles Leclerc.

While the race was arguably won on Qualifying Saturday, the two-stop rule still remained an unpredictable factor heading into race day. A jumbled starting order following grid-drop penalties for the likes of Lewis Hamilton, Lance Stroll and Ollie Bearman was led off the line by polesitter Norris, who immediately had a dramatic lock-up at the start.

Although Leclerc was right on the McLaren’s gearbox, he had no chance of capitalising on the incident, and the top five remained intact through the first few corners.

Further down the order, Gabriel Bortoleto made a daring move on Kimi Antonelli for 15th, but was squeezed by the Mercedes driver into Portier. With Bortoleto stuck in the barriers, a Virtual Safety Car (VSC) was released, giving several drivers the chance to tick off a cheap first stop.

As the cars zipped past the many famous Monaco corners, it was beginning to become clear what most teams had planned for in terms of strategy — position teammates as close together as possible and use one driver to build a gap in the field, to give the driver ahead a less costly pit stop.

The Racing Bulls were one of the first teams to opt for this team game, with Liam Lawson keeping almost half the pack at bay, allowing Isack Hadjar to clear both his pit stops early on. Hadjar went on to finish sixth, a career-best F1 result for the French driver.

Teamwork paid off for the Racing Bulls, with both drivers in career-best finishes | Credit: Formula One

As the first set of stops shook out between Laps 19 to 22, Hamilton managed to secure the perfect overcut while maintaining track position in free air.

At this stage, neither of the Mercedes drivers had completed a stop, and wouldn’t do so until much later – well more than halfway into the race. After a desolate Saturday, the Silver Arrows lined up in 14th and 15th, but found themselves held up by the Williams pair who were replicating the Racing Bulls' team play.

Carlos Sainz was backing up to shield Alex Albon in tenth from the Mercedes pair, drawing frustration from Russell. This scuffle was revisited on Lap 50, when Russell, having had enough of Williams’ games, cut the Nouvelle Chicane to jump ahead of Albon. The Briton quipped that he’ll “take the penalty” and subsequently served a drive-through.

Williams’ teamwork paid off, and the pair brought home another double-points finish in 9th and 10th after a last-minute swap between Sainz and Albon.

While some teams played the team game mastered by Racing Bulls and Williams, another strategy was to manage tyres for as long as possible in hopes of a red flag or Safety Car intervention. Max Verstappen opted for this recourse, and chose to extend his second stint until the very end. With a net fourth place settled after building enough gap to Hamilton in fifth, Red Bull decided to gamble and stay out, hoping to win with a cheap stop.

Although this never reaped any rewards, it did give Leclerc the opportunity to stick with Norris through the final laps. Norris, being held up by Verstappen in the lead yet to make his second stop, had to play it safe with Leclerc who was trying to force him into a mistake.

Charles Leclerc put Norris under pressure throughout the Grand Prix | Credit: Formula One

With the top three cars all on different game plans, and Oscar Piastri joining the fray too, the Monaco Grand Prix was back on after a number of laps overshadowed by traffic and long trains of back-markers.

Once Verstappen finally made his stop, Norris stretched his legs and went on to celebrate a dream victory, while Leclerc was heartbroken at just nearly missing out on back-to-back home wins.

Standard to recent Monaco Grands Prix, the top ten remained fairly the same as the starting order, only slightly mixed up by Fernando Alonso’s retirement at Rascasse on Lap 38 after a power unit issue. It is now officially the worst start to a season for Alonso since his debut in 2001, as his point-less streak continues.

Fernando Alonso has yet to score a point with eight rounds complete | Credit: Formula One

This retirement saw Esteban Ocon move up to seventh, splitting the Racing Bulls with Hadjar in sixth and Lawson earning his first points of the season in eighth ahead of the Williams duo.

A weekend to forget for Mercedes wrapped up with Russell finishing 11th in one of his more gutting F1 weekends and Antonelli plunging down to 18th in the order.

Swapping fates with Antonelli was his F2 teammate and current Haas driver Bearman, who despite a ten-place grid drop, climbed up to 12th. He was followed by the sole Alpine who completed all 78 laps, Franco Colapinto, after his teammate Pierre Gasly lost his brakes and slammed into the rear of Yuki Tsunoda early in the race. Tsunoda managed to complete the race however, classifying 17th. Ahead of the Red Bull driver, the Saubers were split by Stroll to round off the pack.

With another Monaco weekend in the books, teams and drivers will have plenty to discuss, especially concerning the two-stop rule. While it did ensure we didn’t have a repeat of last year, where racing speeds were essentially on par with Formula 2 cars, the cheap stops collected from teammates holding up the field greatly dictated the points order.

Collecting the highest points of the weekend, Norris reflected on his race: “It feels amazing. It’s a long race [...] we won at Monaco, it doesn’t matter how you win I guess. I dreamed of this. This is one of my dreams.

“The worst bit was the end. Max [Verstappen] was ahead, Max was backing it up. I knew Charles [Leclerc] had an opportunity. I still had to manage.”

Home-favourite Leclerc shared his thoughts too, stating: “At the end of the day, we lost the race yesterday. Lando [Norris] did a better job this weekend.

“Considering everything, it's above our expectations coming here. It’s been a good weekend but I wish I won.”