Charles Leclerc’s victory last weekend undoubtedly meant most to him because he finally scored a win in his home city. But it also drew a line under a frustrating spell in which he has repeatedly come close to winning yet failed to.
The Ferrari driver made Monaco only the 13th different country to produce a home race winner in the world championship era. It has had a home winner before – Louis Chiron, who in 1931 won the third Monaco Grand Prix, 19 years before the championship began. And of course it has been won by drivers who lived in Monaco many times before.Leclerc and rival Max Verstappen scored the first home wins for their respective countries, the Red Bull driver doing so at Zandvoort in 2021. He remains undefeated in his home race since then.
Remarkably, this sixth win of Leclerc’s career came from his 24th pole position. He has as many poles as three-times champions Niki Lauda and Nelson Piquet. His wins tally puts him level with two champions – John Surtees and Jochen Rindt – as well as Tony Brooks, Gilles Villeneuve, Jacques Laffite, Riccardo Patrese, Ralf Schumacher and Sergio Perez.
As Leclerc sat on pole position on Sunday in Monaco, had he failed to win he would have equalled the record for most consecutive pole positions which did not result in a victory. That was set by Rene Arnoux, who set 13 pole positions over four seasons from 1979 to 1982 without winning once:
| Sequence | Rene Arnoux | Finished | Notes | Charles Leclerc | Finished | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 1979 Austrian Grand Prix | 6th | 2022 Miami Grand Prix | 2nd | ||
| 2 | 1979 Dutch Grand Prix | Retired | 2022 Spanish Grand Prix | Retired | ||
| 3 | 1980 Austrian Grand Prix | 9th | 2022 Monaco Grand Prix | 4th | ||
| 4 | 1980 Dutch Grand Prix | 2nd | 2022 Azerbaijan Grand Prix | Retired | ||
| 5 | 1980 Italian Grand Prix | 10th | 2022 French Grand Prix | Retired | Was leading | |
| 6 | 1981 French Grand Prix | 4th | 2022 Italian Grand Prix | 2nd | ||
| 7 | 1981 British Grand Prix | 9th | 2022 Singapore Grand Prix | 2nd | ||
| 8 | 1981 Austrian Grand Prix | 2nd | 2023 Azerbaijan Grand Prix | 3rd | ||
| 9 | 1981 Italian Grand Prix | Retired | 2023 Belgian Grand Prix | 3rd | ||
| 10 | 1982 South African Grand Prix | 3rd | 2023 United States Grand Prix | Retired | ||
| 11 | 1982 San Marino Grand Prix | Retired | 2023 Mexican Grand Prix | 3rd | ||
| 12 | 1982 Monaco Grand Prix | Retired | Was leading | 2023 Las Vegas Grand Prix | 2nd | |
| 13 | 1982 Dutch Grand Prix | Retired | 2024 Monaco Grand Prix | 1st |
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Leclerc’s victory in the 70th world championship Monaco Grand Prix was Ferrari’s 10th in the race during that time. They are the second most-successful team in the race, McLaren having 15 wins, the last of which came in 2008.
This was also the first race this year Verstappen failed to lead. Leclerc produced the second lights-to-flag victory of the season, the other having been scored by Verstappen at the first round in Bahrain.
Hamilton denied Leclerc the second ‘grand slam’ – pole, fastest lap and leading every lap for victory – of his career. The Mercedes driver took the fastest lap for the third time in the last four Monaco grands prix.
This was the 66th fastest lap of Hamilton’s career, leaving him 11 shy of the all-time record held by Michael Schumacher. However Hamilton passed Schumacher’s record for most pole positions with the same team, taking his 54th for Mercedes, his fellow septuple champion having 53 with Ferrari.
Piastri equalled his best result to date with second place, which he also scored in Qatar last year. He and Leclerc were joined on the podium by Carlos Sainz Jnr, who reached the rostrum in Monaco for the third time in his four years at Ferrari. George Russell was even more consistent than Sainz, however: He finished fifth for the third year in a row, all of which have come during his time at Mercedes.
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Tsunoda finished in the points at Monaco for the first time in his career. Pierre Gasly and Alexander Albon scored their first points of the year, the latter also putting Williams on the board, leaving Sauber as the only team yet to score a point this year.
Finally, in a depressing indication of how processional the race was, not a single position changed hands in the top 10 all race, something which has never happened before in F1.
Over to you
Have you spotted any other interesting stats and facts from the Monaco Grand Prix? Share them in the comments.
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2024 Monaco Grand Prix
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JamieFranklinF1 (@jamiefranklinf1)
29th May 2024, 7:28
The podium order of the Miami GP went on to become the order of the next 3 GP winners. (Norris, Verstappen, Leclerc)
The last time this happened was in 2018 from Monaco-France when Ricciardo won in Monaco, followed home by Vettel and Hamilton. Vettel went on to win in Canada, and then Hamilton in France.
Esploratore (@esploratore1)
29th May 2024, 21:37
Interesting stat and only possible when you have seasons with several winners, 2018 was an interesting season with 3 competitive teams and while 2024 so far hasn’t been comparable it’s definitely not been as dominant as 2023 so far.
Jere (@jerejj)
29th May 2024, 8:36
Alpine reached Q3 for the first time & Red Bull Racing suffered their first Q1 elimination this season.
Kevin Magnussen’s third consecutive Monaco GP DNF, & Haas’ first double-DNF since, coincidently, the 2022 race.
For the first time since the 2016 Canadian GP (7 to 5), more drivers got lapped twice by the eventual winner than once (6 to 3 in Monaco), & Lewis Hamilton was the last to finish on the lead lap for the second time this season, with the Japanese GP being the previous, albeit not the last to reach the chequered flag on either occasion as he also did lapping, meaning Pierre Gasly as the lowest-finishing driver who got lapped once by the eventual winner was the last in track position order.
The second race this season in which Guanyu Zhou finished the lowest among the drivers who reached the end following the Saudi Arabian GP.
The last stat in the article is an interesting first-timer in F1’s history, though, & something I’d never realized.
Simon
29th May 2024, 21:40
Source? No, of course not…
Miguel Bento (@miguelbento)
29th May 2024, 11:10
“Finally, in a depressing indication of how processional the race was, not a single position changed hands in the top 10 all race, something which has never happened before in F1.”
What about the infamous 2021 Belgian Grand Prix?
RandomMallard
29th May 2024, 11:53
@miguelbento I think the stat, when put in those words, is slightly open to misinterpretation. A better way of putting it would be “The top 10 finished in the same order as qualifying, with no position changes all race”.
In terms of Belgium 2021, Sergio Perez went off on the way to the grid (having qualified 7th), and had to rejoin the “race” at the back, thus they didn’t finish in the same order as qualifying, although admittedly, this was due to an incident on the way to the grid rather than during the “race”.
AlexS
29th May 2024, 11:51
Wasn’t there a Monaco GP in 2021 or earlier with no overtakes? If so then also it did not got an overtake for first 10th.
asz
29th May 2024, 12:12
Perhaps in other races positions did change hands, but through retirement and without any overtakes.
Axel
29th May 2024, 12:41
In 2021 there were position changes through pit stops. For example Vettel jumping Hamilton with the most spectacular overtake which doesn’t count as an overtake.
Esploratore (@esploratore1)
29th May 2024, 21:41
There was also a horrible race in abu dhabi with the same exact cars in the top 12, fairly recently, around 2017-2018, but there were pit stops obviously, so I guess the temporary changes happened there.
Retired (@jeff1s)
29th May 2024, 14:26
« However Hamilton passed Schumacher’s record for most pole positions with the same team, taking his 54th for Mercedes, his fellow septuple champion having 53 with Ferrari. »
Explain ?
PlosslF1
29th May 2024, 15:23
I think swap fastest laps for pole positions…
Jonathan Parkin
29th May 2024, 19:14
But hadn’t Charles already got this record. Wasn’t there a Monaco GP where he got pole position but couldn’t start
Esploratore (@esploratore1)
29th May 2024, 21:44
That race was monaco 2021, was most likely the only occasion to win in a ferrari that was a bit far back compared to red bull and merc that season and he crashed in quali after getting pole, then ferrari didn’t check everything they had to and leclerc discovered a problem before the race started.
Tommy C (@tommy-c)
29th May 2024, 21:31
I reckon you have to go back a fair way to the last time we had 3 race winners from 3 different teams in consecutive races. Probably towards the end of 2021 with Max, Daniel and Lewis. I guess that really highlights how uncompetitive F1 has been!
Esploratore (@esploratore1)
29th May 2024, 21:48
Yes, indeed, dominant seasons have always been a thing in f1, but not as frequently before red bull and merc hit their stride, we had more dominant than competitive seasons since then.
paulgilb (@paulgilb)
29th May 2024, 22:34
First time Leclerc has led the formation lap at Monaco.
Haas did not complete a single legal competitive lap all weekend.
First circuit at which Sainz has managed 3 podiums.
First time Sainz has finished in an odd-numbered position in Monaco. He still keeps alive his record of only finishing in odd-numbered positions this year, though.
Tsunoda has managed more points in 2024 so far than in the whole of either 2022 or 2023.
First 2024 race to feature fewer than 17 classified finishers.
Perez’s first no-score since Mexico City 2023. Leclerc now has the longest unbroken scoring streak with 10 (last no-score was his DNS in Sao Paulo 2023), although he has scored in the last 17 F1 weekends.
First time since Singapore 2023 that Verstappen did not lead a lap.
Ocon’s first DNF since USA 2023. Piastri now has the outright longest unbroken streak (12).
First time Hulkenberg has not been classified since Austria 2023.
15th consecutive season in which Hamilton has managed at least 1 fastest lap – equals M Schumacher’s record (1992-2006 inclusive).
This race sets the record for the lowest value of Population Of Host Nation + Population Of Winner’s Nation.
Leclerc’s first Monaco podium in any series.
Red Bull’s lowest-scoring weekend since their double-DNF in Bahrain 2022.
Thanks to statsf1 and the official F1 site for some of these.