Cool Norris realises Monaco dream

It scores the same as every other race, of course. But for the drivers, points are not the point on this occasion. Somehow Monaco always counts for more. And that much was obvious to Norris as he banished his recent struggles to win for the first time since the opening weekend of the season in Australia.

A race won on Saturday

It’s an old cliché, but completing most of the work by qualifying on pole position is never more true than at Monaco. Norris admitted after the race that he’d been more emotional about his performance on Saturday than his controlled race drive on Sunday, especially in the wake of a first part of the season in which he has struggled to find his best in the 2025 McLaren. In Monaco, the natural speed Norris has always been able to summon was back just when he needed it.

 McLaren’s strategy of its drivers taking two bites was key. Charles Leclerc, pleasantly surprised to find his Ferrari this competitive, went quicker than Norris’ first attempt in Q3 – but having cooled his tyres for a lap Lando had another go and that made the difference. The crucial pole was his.

Two-stop rule worth a shot

The key talking point for the race was a one-off rule introduced just for Monaco to make it mandatory for everyone to take two stops, in an effort to spice up the action and avoid the processional dirge that came in for such criticism here last year.

Did it work? Well, it certainly added extra jeopardy and a degree of intrigue. But ultimately it didn’t affect the final outcome at the sharp end. The response to the move was mixed, although the consensus seemed to be that trying something was worthwhile. Maybe a variation on this theme will be employed again next year.

But if the race had featured more drama in terms of accidents, the two-stop approach might well have thrown up a turnaround result. As it was, there was only one safety car intervention and even that was only of the virtual variety, when Gabriel Bortoleto nosed his Sauber into the Portier barrier after a surprise attack down the inside by Kimi Antonelli. Beyond that, the F1 drivers kept it clean – in contrast to an 11-car pile-up in Formula 2 and a track-blocking crash in the Porsche Supercup.

Verstappen’s ploy that could have worked

Up front, Max Verstappen and Red Bull pulled a strategy that could well have made the most of the two-stop rule. The Dutchman was fourth best in Monaco behind Norris, Leclerc and Oscar Piastri, but vaulted into the lead by holding off from taking his final pitstop until the start of the last lap. He gave Norris a headache by backing the McLaren into Leclerc’s Ferrari, while Piastri – who was never quite as comfortable as his team-mate this weekend – also closed up.

Had a late safety car or red flag stoppage been called, Verstappen would have benefitted from what would have amounted to a free pitstop to potentially luck in to victory. Had such a scenario played out, the mandatory two-stop rule would likely have come under fire for artificially manipulating the result. A Verstappen win in Monaco in such circumstances would have been deemed unjust – although credit to Red Bull for giving the four-time World Champion a shot. It was worth a try and on another day would have worked a treat.

Title battle closes up

“It’s a long, gruelling race but good fun,” said Norris as he soaked in becoming a winner at F1’s most famous race. “Doesn’t matter how you win, I guess. I had an amazing weekend with pole, today, this is what I dreamt of when I was a kid, so I achieved one of my dreams. The worst bit really was just the end. I felt quite under control the whole race but Max was ahead and […] kind of backing it up a little bit and I knew then that was when Charles had the opportunity.”

But it was always a long-shot opportunity. Pure overtaking for modern F1 cars around this track is just too difficult – Grand Prix racing really has outgrown this place in a literal sense. But most traditionalists, including this writer, still wouldn’t be without it. For one race in 24, it’s worth F1 turning a blind eye to what is clear and obvious – and some rules manipulation like the two-stop rule makes sense. Monaco has always been a race like no other, and now that’s more true than ever.

The result means Piastri’s Championship lead is reduced to just three points over his team-mate, with Verstappen falling away to 22 behind Norris.

Frustration for Hamilton

Beyond the top four, Lewis Hamilton finished a distant fifth after a difficult race. He’d been quick in Monaco, qualifying a decent fourth – only to be docked three places on the grid for a communication mix-up with his engineer that led to him blocking Verstappen. But from seventh, he jumped ahead of Isack Hadjar and Fernando Alonso with a well-timed first pitstop. Yet he then toiled to the finish 51 seconds off the lead, having found himself in “no man’s land” for much of the race. It was a performance that sums up his season so far: a degree of promise is evident, but overall Hamilton is just nowhere near fighting for podiums, never mind wins, at this stage.

Team games leave a bad taste

Further back in the midfield, the two-stop rule led to plenty of gamesmanship, as teams used one car to back up rivals for the benefit of the other. Racing Bulls played the strategy game the best, getting all its stops in early as Hadjar again impressed with a fine sixth place, and Liam Lawson backing that up to make it a valuable double score for the team in eighth.

Williams, too, played the game, but not quite as well. Still, Alex Albon and Carlos Sainz Jr. managed their races to finish ninth and tenth – ‘racing’ in a way that made them unpopular. At times they were dangerously slow. Williams team chief James Vowles is admirably honest and appears to be a highly principled team principal. “This isn’t how I like to go racing. But this is what the rules have created,” he admitted to Sky F1 during the race. It later emerged he even texted his old boss Toto Wolff to apologise mid-race as the Williams duo frustrated the Mercedes pair George Russell and Antonelli, who had endured a disastrous qualifying and started only 14th and 15th respectively.

Russell’s frustration led him to make up a place by overshooting the chicane, then he decided to press on and take what he expected to be a five-second penalty – which would have been no penalty at all. So instead, the stewards handed him a drive-through to ensure a meaningful punishment.

A weekend to forget then, for Mercedes. But they have little time to stew on it. The third part of this European triple-header follows quickly, this coming weekend in Barcelona.

Images courtesy of Getty Images.