Here is our full text transcript from the eighth round of the 2024 Formula 1 season, the Monaco Grand Prix:
It’s Race Day for the Monaco Grand Prix! This is the race every driver wants to win and Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc is in prime position to take victory on home soil. Alongside him is Oscar Piastri on the front row, with Carlos Sainz and Lando Norris in behind. Ferrari versus McLaren is the story of the day and both teams will be desperate to win.
Max Verstappen is the filling in a Mercedes sandwich in sixth place, with George Russell ahead of him and Lewis Hamilton just behind. Things could get very feisty there as Verstappen targets a podium but will need some luck to go his way.
Sky Sports F1’s Martin Brundle ahead of the race: “There’s a big story that it’s all about Saturday here and the rest just falls into place thereafter. But this track, with tyre graining being an issue, a number of the drivers are going to be used strategically in this Grand Prix, trying to hold the pack here and there, and they’re not going to be happy about it. It’s going to be fascinating to see how it plays out. We’re not going to get any rain today, but a safety car at the right or wrong time could turn this race on its head.”
Pole-sitter and Ferrari driver Charles Leclerc: “As much as it’s a tiring week because of the level of concentration you need to have during the weekend, I don’t feel it now and I’m super excited to get in the car to do the job. I think we’ve had really good starts recently, so we’ve got to do our things and not do anything crazy, but the pace has been there all weekend. I’ll try to bring it home.”
It should be a one-stop race, so the number of hards and mediums left doesn’t really matter today. Sergio Perez has plenty of new tyres because he was eliminated in Q1 and will start down in 16th today. Let’s see if he can come through the field. We expect the medium-hard strategy to be used by most drivers. The big question is when do you make that pit stop. The key is to pit and come out in clean air, so you can make the most of your fresh rubber. Expect Charles Leclerc to control the pace, so he can react to any undercut attempts.
All of the top four are starting on the medium tyre, meaning both Ferrari and McLaren have decided not to split their tyre strategies. Behind them, George Russell, Max Verstappen and Lewis Hamilton start on the hard tyre, with the trio potentially looking to run long in the hope of some help from a Safety Car. Unsurprisingly no driver is starting on the soft tyre.
Lap 1/78: Charles Leclerc gets off the line brilliantly and holds his lead at the first corner. That’s a big part of his job for the day done! But Carlos Sainz is off already after tangling with one of the McLaren’s off the start. He has, however, managed to get going again and is limping back to the pits.
And we’ve got a red flag! The red flag wasn’t for Carlos Sainz, but rather a huge incident further back involving Sergio Perez and Haas duo Nico Hulkenberg and Kevin Magnussen.
Carlos Sainz has managed to get going again and has limped his way back to the pits following that incident with Piastri off the start. We wait to see how much damage either of their cars have suffered.
Kevin Magnussen, perhaps unwisely, attempted to go up the inside of the Red Bull on the way up the hill. With space running out, the pair made contact, flipping Perez’s car before he was unfortunately slammed into the barrier Magnussen, with neither able to do anything at that point. Hulkenberg was simply caught up in the incident.
We are just seeing replays of the Alpine pair making big contact at Turn Eight (Portier) as Esteban Ocon goes down the inside of Pierre Gasly and the pair bang wheels, with Ocon being lifted high in the air. “What did he do? Why did he try to attack me! Oh my gosh,” says Gasly. “The whole car is damaged now!”
We are waiting for confirmation as to what the order will be when we eventually get a standing restart. That depends on how far round the cars had got when the red flag was thrown. That is of particularly huge significance to Carlos Sainz, and his Ferrari team-mate Charles Leclerc. If the starting order was restored, Leclerc would have his buffer back, as opposed to the threat of two McLarens being directly behind him. It could be a little while, with major damage to that barrier currently being repaired.
The stewards have confirmed the grid order for the restart, and it’s great news for Ferrari! It’s a return to the original starting order, given the cars hadn’t made it far enough around the lap to set an official new order before the red flag was thrown. That means Carlos Sainz is back up to third, and Charles Leclerc’s potential protector is back in place.
The stewards have reviewed the first-lap incident and decided that no further investigation is required. It will be very interesting to see what those involved have to say about it. Sergio Perez might feel a little aggrieved after going through that, while Magnussen’s team-mate Nico Hulkenberg didn’t seem very impressed either.
The cars leave the pit lane and the top four drivers of Leclerc, Piastri, Sainz and Norris have switched from mediums to hards. They want to run all the way to the end of the Grand Prix on the hard tyres.
Russell, Verstappen and Hamilton have gone the opposite way as they started on the hards and are now on the mediums.
Lap 3/78: Charles Leclerc does enough to hold the lead once more, beating Oscar Piastri to the first corner. There’s also no drama for Carlos Sainz behind them this time.
Lap 4/78: It’s very tight between the front-runners in the early stages. Oscar Piastri remains within DRS range of Charles Leclerc at the front, with Carlos Sainz and Lando Norris following closely behind. The leader is unlikely to push the pace, given he will be intending to go to the end on these tyres.
Lap 6/78: Russell, running on the mediums, is being told by his Mercedes team to ease off in his pursuit of Norris, but he’s not happy about that order.
Lap 10/78: Charles Leclerc’s lead over Oscar Piastri is hovering around the one-second mark. Carlos Sainz remains right on Piastri’s rear wing, but Lando Norris has dropped back almost two seconds in fourth.
Lap 16/78: First pit stop of the day as Valtteri Bottas brings his Sauber in, switching from the mediums to the hards as he comes back out at the rear of the field.
Lap 18/78: Sainz has been on the radio to Ferrari about what his team-mate is doing at the front. “Charles is managing I guess? Because that was close with Piastri,” Sainz says, adding: “One lap he might send it.”
Lap 19/78: Valtteri Bottas, in clear air on his new tyres, has just done a lap which is four seconds quicker than the pace Leclerc is going at up front.
Lap 20/78: Charles Leclerc might want to take heed of that warning from his team-mate. There were a couple of moments on the previous lap when Oscar Piastri came very close to pulling off an unlikely overtake. That might explain why the Ferrari driver has just opened the gap a little over the previous lap.
Lap 22/78: Charles Leclerc is managing his pace up front, but George Russell is having to do an even more aggressive tyre management job in fifth on those mediums. Russell’s deficit to Lando Norris in fourth is now over 11 seconds.
Lap 24/78: With Alex Albon running in ninth, Williams are on course to score their first points of the season. He’s applying pressure to the RB of Yuki Tsunoda, but is yet to find any success.
Lap 35/78: Sainz tells Ferrari he is concerned about what Norris behind him might do if the gap opens up further on the front four and the rest of the field.
“There is a risk if we open 20 seconds, Lando goes for a soft,” Sainz says, adding: “I think Lando on soft could be dangerous at the end of the race, but the tyres are starting to grain for everyone.” Worth noting Norris is over 15 seconds ahead of Russell, with leader Leclerc just over 20 seconds clear of the Mercedes man in fifth. Oscar Piastri has also just come onto the radio to discuss the developing tyre situation.
He’s wary of Carlos Sainz attempting to get past him with fresh rubber, but is told by his engineer that Sainz’s lack of a new medium tyre is an advantage for McLaren. Piastri, meanwhile, remains just over a second behind the leader Charles Leclerc.
Esteban Ocon’s 10-second penalty has been converted to a five-place grid penalty for the upcoming Canadian Grand Prix. The Frenchman is in trouble with both his team boss and the stewards…
Lap 42/78: Charles Leclerc now has the additional challenge of navigating some traffic. He’s currently picking his way through the backmarkers, which could present Oscar Piastri with an opportunity…
Lap 44/78: It’s a pit stop!!! Lance Stroll comes in, after team-mate Fernando Alonso very helpfully opened up a gap for him to stop. Stroll now has a 20-second deficit to close on Pierre Gasly. It will be interesting to see how quickly he closes that gap.
Lap 45/78: After his pit stop, we might see Lance Stroll wanting to un-lap himself. It will be interesting to see if the front four let him ease through, or try to hold him up…
Lap 47/78: Charles Leclerc is maintaining a lead of just over a second to Oscar Piastri. The Monegasque appears to be in full control out there. Martin Brundle says: “Charles Leclerc is pacing himself against a driver in fifth place who is 19 seconds behind him. He needs to keep him within 20 seconds and not give McLaren the chance to put and destabilise him.”
Lap 50/78: Lance Stroll’s got a puncture on his brand new set of tyres. It’s the left rear, but he just about makes it back to into the pit lane before the tyre comes off, which means there is no Safety Car required. That could have been very interesting.
Lap 51/78: Lewis Hamilton takes advantage of the huge gap he had opened up to Yuki Tsunoda behind him, and comes into the pits. He’s on a set of hard tyres for the final 27 laps.
Lap 52/78: Max Verstappen responds to Lewis Hamilton’s stop by coming in himself. It proves to be a smart move from Red Bull, as Verstappen retains a small lead over his one-time great rival.
Lap 55/78: With George Russell making his way through traffic, the gap between him and Lando Norris is over 20 seconds. Will McLaren stop?
Lap 58/78: Max Verstappen is rapidly closing on George Russell, with the gap now under 10 seconds. We’ll soon find out if the fresh tyres are enough to the Red Bull past the Mercedes…
Lap 60/78: That brief window where it appeared McLaren had the chance to stop Norris and bring him out in front of Russell has gone. Russell has brought the gap back down to 17 seconds after clearing the traffic.
Lap 61/78: Charles Leclerc is doing his job at the moment. The pole-sitter is almost two seconds clear of Oscar Piastri. He must keep his concentration though, with Lance Stroll having shown us how a brief lapse of concentration can be very costly.
Lap 65/78: Mercedes are confident George Russell has saved enough life in his tyres to keep Max Verstappen behind him. Meanwhile, Lewis Hamilton has close to within three seconds of the Red Bull. It’s back to being the filling of a Mercedes sandwich for Verstappen, unless he can do something very special.
Lap 70/78: Charles Leclerc is surely starting to dream about those podium celebrations. His gap to Piastri has suddenly ballooned to five seconds, with Carlos Sainz right behind him. Could Piastri be struggling with his tyres?
Lap 72/78: Carlos Sainz is going to make Oscar Piastri earn his second place here. The gap is well under a second. For the Australian’s sake, hopefully he has just enough left in those hard tyres to get through the final live laps.
Lap 76/78: Kylian Mbappe will have the honour of waving the chequered flag today and he’s already in position as we head towards the conclusion of this Grand Prix.
Chequered flag: The curse is over! Charles Leclerc has won the Monaco Grand Prix. The hard work was done in Qualifying yesterday, but the Monegasque kept his composure to finish the job today. What a result for Oscar Piastri as well. Despite being under huge pressure from Carlos Sainz in those closing laps with his tyres seemingly having little left, the McLaren driver is able to bring it home in second.
We’ve just heard Charles Leclerc’s reaction over team radio, and it was largely a huge release of emotion. There’s weren’t many audible words as he let out several screams of delight. Remember, this was third-time lucky after his previous two poles at the circuit failed to become race victories. “Tonight is going to be a big night,” he eventually says after calming down.
