After having mostly contested races in the 2021 Formula One season, the first snoozefest of the year arrived as Red Bull’s Max Verstappen was uncontested as he led start to finish to easily win the 2021 Monaco Grand Prix. Ferrari’s Carlos Sainz, Jr. was a distant second, comfortably ahead of McLaren’s Lando Norris in the third and final podium position.
All the drama was removed from the race at the beginning after Ferrari’s pole-sitter, Charles Leclerc, could not start the race after a gearbox/driveshaft issue was damaged from his crash in qualifying the day before. With Leclerc removed from the pole and Mercedes’ defending seven-time F1 world champion, Lewis Hamilton, mired back in fourth row after a poor qualifying session, the only obstacle preventing Verstappen from running away with the race was Hamilton’s Mercedes teammate, Valtteri Bottas, who started in third and had a clear direct racing line once Leclerc was removed from the pole.
But Bottas, despite getting a better start than Verstappen, was unable to make up all the ground before the first corner and Verstappen was then able to gradually scoot away. The race for first became nonexistent when Bottas came in for his pit stop and the Mercedes pit crew suffered a problem removing his right front tire and were unable to remove the tire, causing Bottas to have to retire from the race on Lap 31 of the 78-lap race.
Verstappen then paraded around the circuit unimpeded for the easy win while Hamilton had to settle for salvaging six points for his measly seventh-place finish plus a single point for the fastest lap of the race – and ceding the season lead to Verstappen – who now has 105 points to Hamilton’s 101 points in the driver’s standings.
2021 Top 10 Monaco Grand Prix Finishers
1] Max Verstappen Red Bull
2] Carlos Sainz, Jr. Ferrari
3] Lando Norris McLaren
4] Sergio Pérez Red Bull
5] Sebastian Vettel Aston Martin
6] Pierre Gasly AlphaTauri
7] Lewis Hamilton Mercedes
8] Lance Stroll Aston Martin
9] Esteban Ocon Alpine
10] Antonio Giovinazzi Alfa Romeo