Lando Norris dominated the 2025 Monaco Grand Prix winning from pole, not letting the potential chaos of mandatory two tyre stop get in his way. Talking of mandatory our 2025 Monaco F1 Grand Prix Result Summary is required reading for those who couldn’t stay up or wake up until 1am.
This 2025 Monaco Grand Prix Result, Laps that Matter summary, Review & Ratings which gives you just enough to catch up with. With just a hint of cynicism, bias, opinion and colour. The perfect bite sized review for those who couldn’t be bothered, or don’t have enough time.
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READ MORE: Greg Norman – Nor-mansplains the Monaco Grand Prix
2025 Monaco F1 Grand Prix Result Race Summary
Didn’t see the race live? Don’t have time to watch the whole race? Here’s where we capture the laps where stuff happened. We write these live as we go, sort of like a minute by minute for the football, but marginally more interesting.
Setting the scene – Ahh the gloriousness of Monaco. All the excitement and anticipation of the Monaco GP will probably fade away ten laps in as the track makes it impossible to overtake, but still. And after last season’s bore-fest this season sees two tyre stops being mandatory, which gives it quite an intriguing edge for strategy. As for the most important qualifying session of the season, in a season where qualifying is proving critical, it could have been either McLaren, Max Verstappen or the likeliest Charles Leclerc but was Lando Norris who took pole at the very last opportunity. The Ferrari looks quicker here than at any race in 2025, so Leclerc will hound the McLaren. Oscar Piastri has looked a little ragged throughout and third on the grid will have to do, and Max Verstappen has to settle to for fourth, as the Red Bull is an inch of the very front runners. Good performances again from Hadjar and RB in general, same for Williams and Albon, plus only Fernando Alonso from Aston Martin. Esteban Ocon did great for Hass with 8th. Less great was Kimi Antonelli crashing in Q1.
The F2 Feature race earlier in the day saw a first corner crash between 1st and 2nd on the grid which also wiped out another six cars. Surely that won’t happen in F1.
GRID (Starting Order) – NOR LEC PIA VER HAD ALO HAM OCO LAW ALB
Lap 1 – Lando Norris gets away OK from pole position but has a massive lock up going into turn one but keeps the lead. It does put Charles Leclerc on his tail, however Lando Norris keeps the lead around the first lap easily. The rest of the field behave themselves, unlike the eight car F2 wipeout earlier. The top ten cars appear to be as is from the grid. Halfway around the lap Gabriel Bortoleto is into the barrier as the track meets the harbour, he continues, and replays show he was put off but not necessarily hit by Kimi Antonelli overtaking him, possible as revenge for Bortoleto’s audacious overtake around the outside of the hairpin. A Virtual Safety Car is called. Not before a bunch of midfielders and below pit to get around the two stop rule – Tsunoda, Gasly and Bearman. Bearman’s pitstop is a disaster as his tyres weren’t ready.
ORDER – NOR LEC PIA VER HAD ALO HAM OCO LAW SAI
VIRTUAL SAFETY CAR DEPLOYED – ENDS LAP 4
Lap 5 – Race resumes, and with Virtual Safety Car it is as you were from before that. Lando Norris and Charles Leclerc are in a hurry out in front, clearing Oscar Piastri by three seconds halfway around the lap. Could it be the first signs of team tactics? Surely McLaren wouldn’t ask Piastri to help Norris win a race? Maybe they would. Maybe given the length of tongue of Sky F1 up Norris’ arse, Sky F1 asked them to do it.
Lap 7 – Still no overtaking nor anything close. But Norris is nearly two second in front of Leclerc and the Ferrari is over four seconds ahead of Piastri. Two seconds further back to Max Verstappen. One of the pit stoppers Yuki Tsunoda is close to catching Lance Stroll, who is technically last. And technically a jerk. And arguably the worst F1 driver in the field.
Lap 8 – Double waved yellow flags, which means someone has crashed. It’s an Alpine. And it’s not Crash-a-pinto, it’s Pierre Gasly. Gasly makes it into the pits but only just, and actually has no brakes and has been stopped by another F1 crew and the Alpine is parked in the pitlane. Which means it’s probably unsafe to allow cars to pit. Which means no Safety Car. Replays show that Gasly simply stuffed up his braking into the chicane from out of the tunnel and ran up the rear of Yuki Tsunoda at pace. Unsurprisingly, Gasly gets an investigation.
Lap 12 – The track is clear and Max Verstappen continues to hound Oscar Piastri. Verstappen almost overtook Piastri just after the accident as Piastri slowed down to the yellow flags, as he is required to. Max complains over the radio but he could be in trouble himself for not slowing down enough. Talking of slow enough, the other Sauber pits for tyres – Nico Hulkenberg. Franco Colapinto a lap later.
Lap 14 – Lano Norris is 1.5 second ahead of Piastri is three seconds behind him. All the rest of the cars are 1-2 seconds apart, except Liam Lawson, who is strangely 15 seconds behind the car in front. Smells like tactics. The same four Red Bull car tactics Martin Brundle discussed to Christian Horner’s disgust on the pre-race gridwalk. Horner is a prickly guy at the best of times, and you can drop the “ly” for the rest.
Lap 15 – Isack Hadjar pits for tyres, and comes out in front of his team mate Liam Lawson. That 15 second gap to the car in front working out nicely for RB.
ORDER (Pit) – NOR LEC PIA VER ALO HAM OCO HAD (1) LAW ALB
Lap 17 – Fernando Alonso and Esteban Ocon pit for tyres. They resume 7th and 8th, which is more or less where you expected. The recent pit stops gives Lewis Hamilton clean air and a fresh chance of turning his race into mega points after his three place grid penalty for impeding in qualifying hurt his weekend. He pits on Lap 18 and jumps Hadjar and Alonso for fifth.
Lap 18 – Lance Stroll pits for a first time, which isn’t interesting. Oliver Bearman’s pit stop is, as he is the first driver to pit twice. No more stops for him, and a benchmark for strategy set for tactics nerds. Which we are one.
Lap 19 – Lando Norris pits from the lead and rejoins in fourth but lots of clear air. Isack Hadjar also makes his second pit stop. He rejoins in 8th but his day is also done for pits stops. He is one to watch having pitted twice and is in the top eight.
Lap 21 – Oscar Piastri pits, and his pit stop is slow by modern standards, so not his weekend so far, he’s in danger of being beaten by Max Verstappen. Charles Leclerc pits a lap later and it’s quick enough to see him continue to be the meat in a McLaren sandwich.
ORDER (Pit) VER NOR (1) LEC (1) PIA (1) HAM (1) ALO (1) OCO (1) HAD (2) LAW (0) ALB (0)
Lap 26 – TV Coverage chat with Williams Team Principal who accuses 9th placed Liam Lawson of holding half the field up. With the cars behind Lawson yet to pit, and Hadjar pitted twice, the rest of the cars are playing for 9th at best. Unless there’s a brain fade to come, which there will be.
Lap 29 – Max Verstappen pits from the lead, he rejoins 4th behind Oscar Piastri, and an added bonus for the McLaren is Verstappen has two lapped cars to deal with too.
Lap 30 – Lando Norris approaches the lapped cars and deals with them well, with style and attitude. But enough of the camera panning to his dad. Or any dad, not interested. Show the drivers, leave the fluffy stuff for before or after the actual race.
Lap 34 – Alex Albon pits and ends up behind Liam Lawson, which should make him happy. There was a glimpse of a Mercedes in the coverage. Almost forgot they were in this race.
ORDER – NOR LEC PIA VER HAM ALO HAD OCO LAW ALB
Lap 35 – At the front Lando Norris is over six seconds in front of Charles Leclerc with Oscar Piastri just under six seconds behind Leclerc. Another two and a bit to Verstappen. Recent history shows the Monaco GP winner has come from 1st to 3rd grid slots. So MAx has no chance.
Lap 38 – Fernando Alonso’s Aston Martin is smoking and he pulls off at La Rascasse just before the end of the lap. Ever the professional, Alonso ensures his car doesn’t block the track and bring out any type of Safety Car. Alonso continues to be F1 unluckiest driver. Just over half of the 78 lap race to go.
Lap 46 – The lack of updates points to a lack of action taking over. At least the leaders down to 5th are yet to pit for the second time, which leaves a sneaky late Safety Car in play to ruin someone’s race. Piastri is dropping back from Leclerc, almost nine seconds behind Leclerc. But Lando Norris is coming up behind a bunch of squabbling midfielders to lap.
ORDER – NOR LEC PIA VER HAM HAD OCO LAW SAI ALB
Lap 49 – Oscar Piastri pits for new tyres for a second time. He rejoins fourth, so has effectively lost his place to Max Verstappen who now has to push to steal that by the time of his next stop. Charles Leclerc pits the next lap, and rejoins well ahead of Oscar Piastri
Lap 51 – Lando Norris pits from the lead, Max Verstappen does stays out. This is about as interesting as the front running tactics get now.
Lap 53 – Mercedes working out a way around Alex Albon going slow. That’s cut the chicane and drive off into the distance and make up the potential penalty on track. The stewards call Mercedes bluff and make the penalty a drive through pit lane penalty.
Lap 56 – Max Verstappen is yet to make his second pitstop, but it is sitting pretty if a full Safety Car / Red flag is called. He is two seconds ahead of Lando Norris. Lewis Hamilton pits from fifth and rejoins fifth.
Lap 59 – Max Verstappen appears to be backing Lando Norris back into Charles Leclerc. The top three are only a second apart. This could get interesting indeed. And we need something like this at this stage. They run nose to tail for lap after lap. Piastri is a little further away, and will need accidents ahead to win this race, as his pace alone won’t do it.
ORDER – VER (1 Pit) NOR LEC PIA HAM HAD OCO LAW SAI RUS
Lap 63 – Lando Norris drops off a little from Max Verstappen to rest his car. Looking forward, with Verstappen yet to pit, he could either pit and end up fourth, or drive until the end of the race and take a 30 second penalty for not making a second tyre stop, and still finish fourth. May as well stay out the commentators offer. Stroll is still circulating, so a late race crash can’t be ruled out.
Lap 69 – The top three are closer than ever with Leclerc really on the McLaren’s tail. Oscar Piastri is catching up too. Lando Norris asks where Piastri is to help him out while complaining about Max Verstappen holding him up. If he isn’t careful he’ll talk himself into a position worse than being held up by Verstappen.
Lap 72 – Kimi Antonelli makes his first pitstop of the race. Some drive from the Mercedes rookie.
Lap 75 – There’s very small gaps behind the leading four runners as they battle, but it looks like Status Quo, once Max Verstappen pits or takes a penalty.
Lap 77 – Max Verstappen still doesn’t pit and keeps going to annoy the other top four cars for a little longer.
FINAL LAP – Max Verstappen finally pits for his last stop and he drops to fourth. Lando Norris clears away from Charles Leclerc on the final lap and salutes with a Fastest Lap too. This last lap in clear air allows Sky F1 to gush over their favourite. He deserves the win though, best in qualifying and race. Charles Leclerc is second best, but only just. Oscar Piastri was close enough in third, but also a fair bit away in terms of performance this weekend. Good points for battlers Hadjar, Ocon and Lawson.
FINAL ORDER (Across the line) – NOR LEC PIA VER HAM HAD OCO LAW ALB SAI
Here we go through the field and highlight the very best (Great) of the race, and the plodders, the over-ambitious, the out of luck, and simply hopeless (Grape).
These points get added to our Driver of the Season scores. 5 points for a great nomination, and -5 for the worst or grapest driver in the pack. Then it is +2 /-2 for honourable or dishonourable mentions.
THE GREAT-EST – LANDO NORRIS
Took a sensational pole position which is usually good enough for the win, and that is how it proved at this season’s Monaco GP. One of those weekends where Norris is untouchable.
HONOURABLE MENTIONS
CHARLES LECLERC – Fast all weekend and just pipped to pole position which compromised his chance of winning, but second is a decent effort in the context of the Ferrari team’s 2025 so far.
ISACK HADJAR – A great qualifying saw him line up 5th after the Hamilton penalty. He ran strong in the race, only losing out to Lewis Hamilton around pitstops.
FERNANDO ALONSO – Outperformed the car again but can’t outperform his luck. A mechanical DNF hurts when your first points of the season are within reach.
ESTEBAN OCON – A very solid qualifying and race from Ocon, who needs a few more of them to avoid being blown away by a rookie.
LIAM LAWSON – It’s been easy to pick on Liam Lawson this season, because he has been awful. But did well at Monaco with a Q3 effort in the RB, getting points on Sunday, and playing the team game better than anyone,
THE GRAPE-EST – PIERRE GASLY
Dropped out of qualifying in Q1. Smashed Yuki Tsunoda in the race after misjudging his braking and became the first retirement. Missed a chance to show his speed.
DISHONOURABLE MENTIONS
OSCAR PIASTRI – A slightly underwhelming weekend. More mistakes than usual, crashing head on into the barriers at one stage. Lando Norris’ pole and win, give his main Championship rival dangerous momentum after missing out last weekend too.
MERCEDES – Off the pace a touch in general, slower than Williams. crashing in qualifying, terrible strategy, poor race.
Was it a good race, loads of action, a tense ending, a surprise result or DNF, or just a big, fat, snooze-fest?
We rate the big race itself, so we know which races to go back and watch in the off season or one to simply remember the winner for the post season quiz nights.
PRE RACE ACTION (FP, QUAL, SPRINT, OFF TRACK etc) – 5 / 5
Monaco Qualifying is always blockbuster and so it proved again. Tense all the way through as it is so important. Plus the Friday sessions are glorious to watch no matter what happens.
ON TRACK ACTION (RACE) – 6 / 10
Safe to say the two stop rule worked, as the race had a few different angles going for most of the Monaco Grand Prix. Dull in some places but that’s better than dull for the entire race. Sadly, the drivers are more competent than ever, which reduced the crashes.
ANY SURPRISES? – 2 / 5
Not really. Pierre Gasly’s amateur exit was a bit of a surprise. Isack Hadjar’s pace is also a bit of a surprise. As is Mercedes lack of pace.
SEASON IMPORTANCE – 4 / 5
Lando Norris flexes his Championship muscles for another weekend and draws closer to the Points lead. Mercedes lack of pace reveals they are confirmed to be less Championship worthy and more upper midfield.
ENDING – 4 / 5
Quite exciting at the end where Max Verstappen is holding up Lando Norris which gives Charles Leclerc and Oscar Piastri a chance to catch up and hope. It doesn’t work out, but it was mighty distraction to the post-midnight timeslot.
OVERALL RATING – 21 / 30
You’d have to say the two stop rule worked. The end of the race proving more exciting than usual. And plenty of dodgy tactics before then. Whatever happens it’s still a great race weekend, so a nice bonus it was interesting late.
2025 F1 Season Race Ratings
R1 – Australian Grand Prix – 27/30
R2 – Chinese Grand Prix – 11/30
R3 – Japanese Grand Prix – 18/30
R4 – Bahrain Grand Prix – 19/30
R5 – Saudi Arabia Grand Prix – 17/30
R6 – Miami Grand Prix – 17/30
R7 – Emilia-Romagna Grand Prix – 20/30
2025 F1 Season Preview Gear
F1 2025 SEASON – THINGS TO LOOK FOR AND AVOID
F1 DONKEY AUSTRALIAN GP BOLD PREDICTIONS
2024 F1 Season Review Gear
Stay tuned for our Power Rankings from the race soon as it is currently being calculated and will be ready on Monday.
2024 F1 SEASON FULL RACE REPORT HISTORY
