Winners and Losers from 2024 F1 Monaco Grand Prix

It had to end one day, Charles Leclerc's curse around Monaco.  His previous F1 races in his home Principality have gone like this. DNF, DNF, Cancelled, DNS, fourth and sixth.  In 2021, he qualified on pole, then crashed and a technical problem then stopped him from taking his P1 on the grid.  But this time, there was no mistake.  Whilst Leclerc shone though, the storm clouds that could have rather enlivened what was a dull and boring grand prix gathered over some of his colleagues. Winner - Charles Leclerc This was Leclerc's strongest and most complete weekend since he made his F1 debut.  Some might argue Australia 2022 where he was serene, but in terms of carrying the weight of the hoodoo with him, he responded emphatically.  He topped FP2 and FP3, but did not do so in qualifying, as it looked McLaren might be favourite with Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri both faster in Q2, but he stormed back with two laps good enough for pole in Q3, and as is so often the case in Monaco, that was basically that. The red-flag removed all strategy options as the field then swapped to hards for the rest of the race, if they had started on the mediums, and although Piastri had a sniff or two, his chances of passing the Monegasque on his home streets ranged from somewhere between 0 and impossible. Remarkably, it is Leclerc's first grand prix win since Austria 2022, nearly two years ago and the sixth of his career. He is now just 31 points behind Max Verstappen who laboured to sixth in a decidedly 'off' weekend for Red Bull. Game on.   Loser - Red Bull, Sergio Perez Whilst Sergio Perez's enormous crash was Red Bull's big concern on Sunday and will lead to a lot of elbow grease at Milton Keynes to get the chassis back into some sort of useable state, the major concern was Vestappen's comments after qualifying. Almost melancholic, he described how the team had been "found out", and its major problems "masked" by its domination over recent years, with ride quality over bumps and kerbs a major problem for the RB20. Monaco is an outlier in terms of tracks, but Red Bull has often struggled on street tracks, with the car needing to be run as low to the track as possible to generate the downforce. On a relatively flat surface like Bahrain or China for example, it is going to fly, but put it on a bumpy, camber-ridden street track, it is going to struggle.  There is work to do - especially as McLaren seems to have fixed the low-speed weakness that has plagued the cars for years. As for Perez, his shattered RB20 just about summed up his weekend. A driver who should have been nowhere near Kevin Magnussen at the start has his race and car ruined though no fault of his own. Winner - Oscar Piastri Piastri has lost an awful lot of points in 2024 through no fault of his own, and also through his own fault.  In Miami, he lost a top-five result when Carlos Sainz - who was VERY lucky to retake his third on the grid for the restart - clattered into him whilst he lost second on the Imola grid after impeding  Magnussen at Tamburello in Q1.  Team-mate Norris was just stating to build up a solid run of momentum with three straight podiums, including that Miami win, so it was vital Piastri snapped that streak dead. And he did that by being the better of the two McLaren drivers across the weekend, having a tenth or two to Norris in his pocket, and had he strung Q3 together, might have had a small chance at pole position.  It was not to be, but this was an outstanding performance from Piastri for whom it was vital to stop the Norris train fully leaving the station. Loser - Kevin Magnussen Magnussen can count himself extremely lucky he is not facing a race ban for Caanda after the stewards declined to take further action over the Perez incident.  By sticking his car up the inside as he did, he repeated what he did to Yuki Tsunoda in China and Logan Sargeant in Miami, both things he was handed penalty points for, hooking the other car out with severe damage.  Magnussen is no mug and has been around and driven up Beau Rivage enough times to know you simply do not drive into what is always going to be a closing wedge.  He is a driver who is looking increasingly 'done' with F1 and his frustration is coming through in his driving. At least his multiple penalties in the Miami sprint was worth something as Nico Hulkenberg banked some points for the team. This time, Magnussen's bin it move also took the sister car out. The low point in a season defined by them. Winner - Pierre Gasly As Alpine has struggled in the early part of the season, Pierre Gasly was somewhat overshadowed by Esteban Ocon in the sister car.  Ocon banked 10th in Miami for a first point of the season, and also took 11th in Canada as he appeared to be on top as the team tried to shed excess weight and improve its A524 machine.  But his performance in Monaco was outstanding, as he banked a Q3 berth, which given the difficulties in overtaking, was enough to almost certainly earn a point.  Which is what he did, despite the efforts of his team-mate... Loser - Esteban Ocon If it happens once, you give the benefit of the doubt, shit happens.  If it happens twice, you start think: 'Okay, there is something here' and if it happens for a third time, then maybe you are the problem.  That is not describing the two previous incidents between Ocon and Gasly where they've collided since the start of 2023, with the accidents in Australia and Hungary not their fault and just being collateral damage. But rather the approach Ocon takes with his team-mates and his tendency to run into them.  Its happened multiple times with Perez, then Fernando Alonso and now Gasly.  His move at Portier stunk of 'I'm not going to let YOU get a point' for the team and his "mistakes happen" comment post-race felt like a driver who didn't actually get it. Until boss Bruno Famin read him the riot act and he subsequently issued a public apology, but this is now Gasly's team and as Ocon peers at the Enstone exit door with his contract up at the end of the season, Famin can give the ultimate sanction and bench Ocon for Canada. The reckless move deserves it.