Kimi Antonelli extended his remarkable winning streak to five consecutive Formula 1 victories with a dominant but disrupted drive at the Monaco Grand Prix, holding off Lewis Hamilton after a red flag and standing restart erased a lead that had ballooned to nearly 30 seconds.
The 19-year-old championship leader controlled the race from pole position, building a commanding advantage over Hamilton’s Ferrari before late-race chaos transformed the event. Lance Stroll crashed into the wall at Antony Noghes on lap 60, triggering a Safety Car. When the field prepared to restart on lap 66, Charles Leclerc struck the barrier at the same corner, prompting a second Safety Car and then a red flag as marshals discovered that a recently resurfaced section of track at the final corner had degraded, leaving asphalt debris on the racing line.
After a 40-minute stoppage, the race resumed with a standing start. Antonelli lined up alongside Hamilton and covered the Ferrari driver into Sainte Dévote, then controlled the remaining eight laps to take the checkered flag 6.271 seconds clear. Isack Hadjar was classified third for Red Bull Racing after Pierre Gasly, who crossed the line ahead of him, received two five-second penalties for pit-lane speeding and dropped to seventh. The result gave Hadjar his first podium with Red Bull and the second of his career, though the FIA noted he remained under investigation for a potential procedural infringement under the red flag.
The race began with immediate drama when Max Verstappen’s Red Bull stuttered off the front row of the grid, forcing cars behind to take evasive action. The Dutchman limped around to the pit lane with engine issues and retired without completing a lap. Antonelli seized the opportunity, building a five-second lead by lap 10 and extending it further once clear of lapped traffic. After his pit stop, the Mercedes driver rejoined with a 17.3-second margin over Hamilton and continued to pull away before the Safety Car intervention.
Hamilton served a pit-lane speeding penalty during a stop under the Safety Car but recovered to finish second. Oscar Piastri took fourth for McLaren, while his teammate Lando Norris retired with a battery issue. Liam Lawson and Arvid Lindblad delivered a strong double-points finish for Racing Bulls in fifth and sixth, with Lindblad benefiting from the red flag to change tires after running the earlier phase without a pit stop.
Alex Albon and Esteban Ocon claimed eighth and ninth. Sergio Pérez provisionally completed the top 10 for Cadillac after Nico Hülkenberg received a 10-second penalty for contact with Carlos Sainz at the hairpin following the restart, though Pérez himself awaited a stewards’ decision for a possible false start, having earlier been penalized for lining up in Gabriel Bortoleto’s empty grid box.
George Russell endured a difficult afternoon for Mercedes, finishing 13th after the team failed to correctly serve a five-second pit-lane speeding penalty during his second stop, resulting in a drive-through penalty. Oliver Bearman and Valtteri Bottas also retired, joining Verstappen, Stroll, Leclerc, and Norris on the list of six non-finishers in one of the most incident-packed Monaco races in recent memory.