the 2026 monaco grand prix: kimi's grand slam, leclerc's two walls and a point for the GOAT
antonelli becomes the youngest ever monaco winner, verstappen lasts one lap, leclerc finds the wall twice and alonso scores aston martin's first point.
monaco is supposed to be the one race where the fastest car can still lose. overtaking is close to impossible, and one mistake puts you in a wall. kimi antonelli arrived 43 points clear of george russell after four straight wins, and mercedes had spent the week insisting its drivers were free to race each other. so could anyone get in his way? (no.)
antonelli took pole by 0.043 seconds from max verstappen, with lewis hamilton third. charles leclerc qualified fourth and then crashed at tabac on his final lap, at home, because of course he did. russell was only sixth, and the mclarens were seventh and eighth on the weekend the team celebrated its 1,000th grand prix. both aston martins went out in Q1 and shared the back row.
the dutch lion’s race was over almost before it started. “the engine just dropped dead,” verstappen said, and he could only sit there while the field went around him. he crawled through the first lap and retired.
that left antonelli with a clear road, and he never gave it back. he led all 78 laps and set the fastest lap, which with pole makes it a grand slam. at 19 he is the youngest driver ever to win in monaco (hamilton was 23 in 2008) and the youngest to take a grand slam. five wins in a row. i don’t know what else to tell you.
behind him, it was chaos. valtteri bottas retired with brake problems, haas called ollie bearman in to park his car, and lando norris lost power, so mclaren’s party ended with one car. then five drivers were given 5-second penalties for speeding in the pit lane: hamilton, russell, oscar piastri, franco colapinto and pierre gasly (twice). five drivers in one race. i have questions.
russell’s afternoon was the worst of the lot. he didn’t serve his 5 seconds properly, got a drive-through for it, and finished P12. so much for the gods owing him one.
with 22 laps left lance stroll crashed at the final corner and brought out the safety car. at the restart, leclerc crashed at exactly the same corner. that meant a red flag while the track surface was inspected, then a standing restart, with ferrari’s home hero in the barriers for the second day running.
gasly crossed the line third from ninth on the grid, but his two penalties dropped him to seventh, which gave isack hadjar his first podium of the season. hamilton kept second, piastri was fourth, and the racing bulls of liam lawson and arvid lindblad were fifth and sixth.
and then the best part. sergio perez looked to have scored cadillac’s first ever point, until the stewards gave him a 10-second penalty for lining up outside his grid box at the restart. that handed tenth to my GOAT, fernando alonso, who started P21. it’s aston martin’s first point of 2026. i’ll take it.
the championship: antonelli 156, hamilton 90, russell 88, leclerc 75. that’s a 66-point lead after six races.
there’s no break, because the barcelona-catalunya grand prix is next sunday, june 14. my prediction: antonelli makes it six, and verstappen (who somehow has 43 points) finally gets a clean weekend and a podium. see you in barcelona.