Charles Leclerc admits he had tears in his eyes during the closing stretch of the Monaco Grand Prix, brought on by the realisation that success was on the cards.
The Monagasque led from the pole until the chequered flag, ending years of misfortunes at his home race that earned him a reputation of having a ‘home soil curse’,
“Where I struggled the most to contain my emotions was during the last ten laps of the race,” Leclerc said at the chequered flag.
“I realised actually two laps to the end that I was struggling to see out of the tunnel just because I had tears in my eyes and, especially on a track like Monaco, you have to be on it all the way to the end.
“It was very difficult to contain those emotions, those thoughts again of the people that have helped me get to where I am today.”
“It’s only a win. The season is still very, very long. It’s 25 points like any other win. However, emotionally, this one means so much.
“And I think the fact as well that we started twice on pole position in the past and that we couldn’t manage to get the win for one reason or another, that we couldn’t really control, not in our control, makes this one even more so special.”
The Ferrari driver kept front-row started Oscar Piastri at bay off the line, with his teammate Carlos Sainz slotting into third, ahead of McLaren’s Lando Norris.
The front four pulled a sizable advantage over fifth-placed George Russell during the race, with the gaps between the two Ferraris and McLarens fluctuating lap-by-lap. Still, the positions stayed the same until the chequered flag.
With a red flag on Lap 1 allowing tyre changes, the field was not required to stop during the race. The front five remained out to maintain track position, given the difficulties of overtaking on the famed Monte Carlo Street Circuit.
Only when Russell came under pressure from Max Verstappen and Lewis Hamilton, who had stopped for fresh tyres late in the race, did the margin reduce, with the Mercedes driver crossing the line 6.5 seconds behind Norris.
Verstappen encapsulated the difficulties of overtaking at Monaco by overturning a 20-second gap to the Mercedes on 52-lap fresher tyres, but he could not make the pass.
The top ten finished in the same order as they started, with Leclerc winning from Piastri, Sainz, Norris, Russell, Verstappen, Hamilton, Yuki Tsunoda, Alex Albon and Pierre Gasly.
For Leclerc, there was an extra sense of emotion, given it was his father’s dream for him to win at home. His father passed away in 2019 following a long illness.
“My father has done absolutely everything for me to get to where I am today,” Leclerc said. “Our dream was to race and win Monaco in F1. I wouldn’t have imagined when I was younger I would race with Ferrari one day and win this race, and that was obviously the ultimate dream right before becoming world champion.
“I felt like I not only completed my own dream but also the one of my father. And of my mother, who has sustained me in everything I have done since then and who has been an incredibly strong woman when we all lost my dad.”
Lap 1 incidents derailed the hopes of Sergio Perez, Kevin Magnussen, Nico Hulkenberg, and Esteban Ocon.
Perez and the two Haas drivers were involved in a frightening high-speed crash through turns 2 and 3, with Magnussen sticking his nose up the inside of the Red Bull heading up the hill. With the gap closing, Perez made contact with the Haas’s front left, spinning to the right and hitting the barriers before rebounding across the track and into the outside wall, taking significant damage.
Hulkenberg was left with nowhere to go and made contact with his teammate, with all three cars forced out.
Before that, Sainz and Piastri came together at Turn 1, which saw the Ferrari puncture as he ran the outside line. He was forced to the runoff at Turn 4 and dropped to the back of the field.
Zhou Guanyu, who was running 20th, was his saving grace, with the Sauber forced to slow to a crawl to avoid the debris from the large crash of Perez, Hulkenberg and Magnussen, meaning he hadn’t completed the opening sector when the red flag was shown.
This saw the grid reset on starting positions, and Ferrari repaired the Spaniard’s car during the delay of over 40 minutes.
Moments before the interruption, Esteban Ocon lunged on his teammate at the corner before the tunnel and was sent partially airborne as a result. He sustained significant damage and incurred a 10-second penalty that was converted to five grid places for the Canadian Grand Prix.
Alpine Team Chief Bruno Famin expressed extreme displeasure with Ocon’s lunge on his teammate in an explosive interview on French TV, vowing that his driver would be punished for the contact.
Following the contact, Famin was seen talking with Alpine reserve driver Jack Doohan on the roof of the pit building.
Remarkably, Gasly escaped significant damage and scored his first championship point of the season in 10th.
Formula 1 returns with the Canadian Grand Prix at Circuit Gilles Villeneuve on June 10.
