Race Result — Sunday 25 May
| Pos | Driver | Team | Gap |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Kimi Antonelli | Mercedes | 2:23:31.243 |
| 2 | Lewis Hamilton | Ferrari | +6.271s |
| 3 | Pierre Gasly REINSTATED | Alpine | — |
| 4 | Isack Hadjar | Red Bull | +23.394s |
| 5 | Oscar Piastri | McLaren | +24.261s |
| 6 | Liam Lawson | Racing Bulls | +26.553s |
| 7 | Arvid Lindblad | Racing Bulls | — |
| 8 | Alex Albon | Williams | — |
| 9 | Esteban Ocon | Haas | — |
| 10 | Sergio Pérez | Cadillac | — |
| 13 | George Russell +5s + DT | Mercedes | P13 |
DNFs: Max Verstappen (anti-stall), Lando Norris (power unit), Valtteri Bottas (brakes), Oliver Bearman (mechanical), Lance Stroll (crash), Charles Leclerc (crash), Carlos Sainz (collision).
Race Story
The 2026 Monaco Grand Prix delivered everything the street circuit is famous for — chaos, attrition, controversy, and a winner who simply refused to make a mistake. Kimi Antonelli converted pole into the lead at the start and never looked like relinquishing it, even as the race collapsed into confusion around him.
The drama began almost immediately. Max Verstappen, starting from second on the grid, suffered an anti-stall issue off the line and was stranded before the race had properly started. The four-time champion — already struggling in the 2026 season — was out on lap one, his Red Bull parked at the barriers while the rest of the field streamed past. It was a painful afternoon for a driver who had dominated Monaco as recently as two years earlier.
With Verstappen gone, Antonelli established a methodical lead over Lewis Hamilton. The Ferrari driver had worked his way up from third on the grid and was running a composed, error-free race, but he could not close the gap to the Mercedes. Antonelli managed his tyres and the street circuit's unique demands with a maturity that belied his 19 years.
Lando Norris' afternoon ended prematurely with a power unit failure, removing another championship contender from the equation and further compressing the midfield. With Verstappen and Norris both out, the race effectively became a question of who could survive to the end — a question Monaco answered in its typically brutal fashion.
With approximately 20 laps remaining, Lance Stroll crashed at the Antony Noghes corner, bringing out the safety car and wiping out Antonelli's advantage over Hamilton. The gap was erased in an instant. Then, moments after the safety car was deployed, Charles Leclerc — who had been running in the points after recovering from his qualifying crash — made contact with the barriers in near-identical circumstances to Stroll. The red flag came out. Monaco had claimed its second home hero in the space of minutes.
The restart proved just as treacherous. Nico Hülkenberg tagged Carlos Sainz on the way into the first corner; Sainz, with his car damaged, subsequently hit Franco Colapinto, triggering a chain of contact that ended both their races. Three more retirements in the space of a single lap — Monaco's appetite for carnage was fully satisfied.
The penalties followed. Hamilton, Piastri and Gasly each received five-second time penalties for pit lane speeding during the safety car period — a costly error that shuffled the finishing order significantly. Gasly, who had crossed the line third on the road, was dropped to seventh after his penalty was applied, while Isack Hadjar was initially promoted to an unexpected podium on only his sixth Formula 1 start.
The drama did not end at the chequered flag. Alpine launched a right of review after discovering that FOM's own distance measurement data — used to calculate pit lane speeds — was inaccurate. FOM acknowledged the figure had overestimated Gasly's speed through the pit lane. The stewards, presented with this new evidence, rescinded the five-second penalty and reinstated Gasly to third place. Hadjar dropped to fourth, Piastri to fifth, and Lawson and Lindblad each moved back one position accordingly. Gasly's Monaco podium stood.
George Russell's afternoon was the most painful of all. Already under pressure after his Canadian retirement, he collected two separate penalties — a five-second infraction and a drive-through — that turned a potential points finish into 13th place. It was his second consecutive race without scoring, and the championship gap to Antonelli, which had seemed manageable weeks ago, suddenly felt very wide indeed.
Antonelli crossed the line to take his fifth win of the season, setting the fastest lap of the race on lap 76 for good measure. The win, combined with Hamilton's second place, extended his lead over the Ferrari driver to 66 points. At Monaco — the race where Antonelli was born just 19 years ago — the 2026 championship was beginning to look like a formality.
Key Incidents
- 🔴 Verstappen out on lap one — Anti-stall failure off the start line ended Verstappen's race before it began. The four-time champion was stranded at the barriers, ending a miserable opening to the 2026 season for Red Bull's lead driver.
- 💥 Stroll crash triggers safety car — Lance Stroll hit the barriers at Antony Noghes with around 20 laps to go, wiping out Antonelli's lead and setting the stage for the dramatic final phase of the race.
- 🚩 Leclerc crashes — red flag — Charles Leclerc followed Stroll into the barriers moments later, triggering a full red flag. The Monegasque driver, who had already crashed in qualifying, was unable to see out the race in his home grand prix for the second successive year.
- 💢 Restart carnage — Hülkenberg, Sainz, Colapinto — The restart produced immediate contact. Hülkenberg tagged Sainz, who then hit Colapinto, eliminating three more cars and leaving Monaco's barriers battered once again.
- ⏱️ Triple pit lane penalty — Hamilton, Piastri, Gasly — Three drivers received five-second penalties for pit lane speeding during the safety car. Gasly dropped from third on the road to seventh after the penalties were applied — though that was not the end of the story.
- ⚖️ Gasly appeal succeeds — podium reinstated — Alpine launched a right of review after FOM confirmed that the distance data used to calculate Gasly’s pit lane speed was inaccurate and had overestimated how fast he was travelling. Stewards accepted this as a “significant and relevant new element” and rescinded the penalty. Gasly was reinstated to third; Hadjar dropped to fourth, Piastri to fifth, Lawson to sixth, and Lindblad to seventh.
- 😞 Russell penalised to 13th — George Russell received both a five-second time penalty and a drive-through, turning a points finish into 13th place. His second consecutive race without scoring left him under serious pressure in the championship.
- 🏆 Cadillac's first ever F1 points — Sergio Pérez brought the Cadillac home 10th, giving the American team their first championship point in Formula 1. The result came despite Pérez facing a post-race investigation for an alleged false start.
Championship Impact
Antonelli's fifth win from six starts extended his Drivers' Championship lead to 66 points over Lewis Hamilton. The scale of that advantage — with 20 rounds still remaining — puts the Italian teenager in a position no one in the paddock could have predicted at the start of the season.
For Hamilton, second place was the damage-limitation result Ferrari needed. The seven-time champion has now finished on the podium in five of the six races, but Antonelli's consistency and outright pace has simply been at another level. The Ferrari must find more if the championship is to remain a genuine contest.
Russell's afternoon was the most damaging for the standings. Two successive races without points — Canada (retirement) and Monaco (penalties) — have seen him slip to third in the championship, with the gap to Antonelli now looking increasingly difficult to bridge. The Mercedes team will need a clean weekend desperately before the summer.
Pierre Gasly's restored podium was one of the most unusual post-race developments in recent F1 history. Alpine's legal team spotted that FOM's own timing data had overestimated his pit lane speed, and the stewards had no option but to rescind the penalty once the evidence was presented. For Isack Hadjar, a fairytale first podium became a fourth place — still a remarkable result in just his sixth Formula 1 start, and one that underlined his potential for the rest of the season.
Collect These Drivers
Race Weekend Schedule
Monaco runs to its traditional Thursday–Sunday format, giving the streets an extra day of practice before qualifying locks in the grid through the unforgiving barriers of the principality.
| Session | Day | Local Time (CEST) | Eastern (ET) | Pacific (PT) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| FP Practice 1 | Thursday 22 May | 12:30 | 06:30 | 03:30 |
| FP Practice 2 | Thursday 22 May | 16:00 | 10:00 | 07:00 |
| FP Practice 3 | Saturday 24 May | 12:30 | 06:30 | 03:30 |
| Q Qualifying | Saturday 24 May | 16:00 | 10:00 | 07:00 |
| ● Race | Sunday 25 May | 15:00 | 09:00 | 06:00 |
Times are indicative. Always verify with the official F1 calendar before race weekend.
Qualifying Result — Saturday 24 May
Kimi Antonelli claimed his fifth pole of the 2026 season with a 1:12.051, beating Max Verstappen by just 43 milliseconds in a tense Q3. Charles Leclerc crashed at the barriers on his final push lap, ending his session from fourth. George Russell was shuffled back to sixth despite Mercedes pace.
| Pos | Driver | Team | Time / Gap |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Kimi Antonelli POLE | Mercedes | 1:12.051 |
| 2 | Max Verstappen | Red Bull | +0.043s |
| 3 | Lewis Hamilton | Ferrari | +0.228s |
| 4 | Charles Leclerc CRASH | Ferrari | +0.300s |
| 5 | Isack Hadjar | Red Bull | +0.383s |
| 6 | George Russell | Mercedes | +0.394s |
| 7 | Oscar Piastri | McLaren | +0.573s |
| 8 | Lando Norris | McLaren | +0.714s |
| 9 | Pierre Gasly | Alpine | +1.175s |
| 10 | Liam Lawson | Racing Bulls | +1.361s |
Eliminated in Q2: Alex Albon, Carlos Sainz, Nico Hülkenberg, Franco Colapinto, Arvid Lindblad, Gabriel Bortoleto · Eliminated in Q1: Esteban Ocon, Sergio Pérez, Oliver Bearman, Valtteri Bottas, Fernando Alonso, Lance Stroll
Sky Sports F1 — Full 2026 On-Screen Line-Up
Sky Sports has announced an expanded team for the 2026 season. The full on-screen line-up is packed with former world champions, race engineers, and seasoned broadcasters. Read the official Sky Sports announcement →
SPORTS
F1
2026 Commentators
Experts & Analysts
Presenters & Reporters
Four world champions on the pundit bench, Ted Kravitz in the pit lane, and a broadcast team that’s been covering F1 for decades. Getting the Sky Sports feed in Apple TV is well worth the extra scroll.
About the Circuit de Monaco
Monaco has hosted the Formula 1 Grand Prix every year since 1950 (with a few gaps in the early era). The 3.337 km street circuit winds through the narrow roads of the principality, with less than a metre of space between the barriers and the cars in some sections.
The 2026 season brings radically revised aerodynamic regulations, with cars producing far less downforce from the floor. Monaco will be one of the truest tests of the new package — mechanical grip, driver feel and Monaco know-how will count for more than anywhere else on the calendar.
Pole position has historically been a near-guarantee of victory at Monaco. With the new cars still being understood, qualifying on Saturday could be more unpredictable than ever.
Collect the 2026 F1 Season in Cards
While you’re watching Monaco, don’t forget the 2025 Topps Chrome Formula 1 Diamond 75th Anniversary card set — the most collectible F1 trading cards ever produced. Browse the full checklist, values and graded population data right here on D75 Cards.