Norris wins maiden Monaco GP to close title gap on teammate Piastri

Al Jazeera

6 days ago

Lando Norris celebrated his first Monaco Grand Prix win from pole position and slashed McLaren teammate Oscar Piastri's Formula One drivers' championship lead to just three points in a race more about strategy than speed.
Ferrari's Charles Leclerc finished runner-up in the home race he won last year, with Piastri third and Red Bull's Max Verstappen fourth – all four finishing in the order they started.
The Sunday afternoon race featured two mandatory pit stops for the first time, but hopes of more action around the cramped harbourside circuit fell short.
Drivers through the field played a waiting game, with Verstappen holding off his final stop until the penultimate lap and those behind biding their time while keeping out of trouble. Norris ultimately lapped all but four cars.
The win was the Briton's second in eight races and first since the Australian GP season opener in March, as well as McLaren's first at Monaco since 2008.
'Monaco baby!' Norris shouted over the radio as the chequered flag finally fell.
'The last quarter was stressful with Leclerc behind and Max ahead, but we won in Monaco,' he said.
'This is what I dreamed of when I was a kid, so I achieved one of my dreams.'
Ferrari's Lewis Hamilton was fifth, with Racing Bulls' Isack Hadjar sixth and Haas's Esteban Ocon seventh.
Liam Lawson scored his first points of the season for Racing Bulls in eighth place, and Williams completed the top 10 with Alex Albon and Carlos Sainz.
Mercedes had a dismal afternoon in the Mediterranean sunshine, after a nightmare in qualifying, with George Russell 11th and Italian rookie Andrea Kimi Antonelli 18th and the last car still running.
The virtual safety car was deployed on the opening lap when Sauber's Gabriel Bortoleto went into the tyre wall at Portier, the turn before the tunnel, as Antonelli passed on the inside.
Bortoleto made it back to the pits and continued.
Alpine's Pierre Gasly was the first retirement, the Frenchman crashing into the back of Yuki Tsunoda's Red Bull car at the tunnel exit on lap nine and limping back to the pits with the front left wheel hanging off.
'Is he an idiot? What is he doing?' exclaimed Tsunoda.
Gasly, who said he had no brakes, almost took out Argentine rookie teammate Franco Colapinto as he careered through the Nouvelle Chicane.
Aston Martin's double world champion Fernando Alonso was the second retirement, pulling off on lap 38 with a smoking car to continue his scoreless run for the season.
The Spanish Grand Prix is the next race on the F1 calendar and will take place on Sunday, June 1.