The Monaco Grand Prix has been part of the World Championship since 1950, but its legacy began long before. It remains Formula 1’s most unforgiving test of precision:  78 laps around the 3.337 km circuit that wind through the streets of Monte Carlo. Held on 23-25 May 2025, this season brought a twist: a mandatory two-stop strategy that injected jeopardy into a race where track position usually reigns. Verstappen’s camp argued that overtaking would demand an unrealistic pace advantage, while the paddock speculated on how the mandatory second stop would redefine a circuit long ruled by pit windows and undercuts.

Typical Riviera weather meant cool-mild asphalt kept front tyres in range and stopped the rears from cooking. Evolution was steady but short of the rubber needed to cut the pass threshold. Cars with compliant rear ride had the edge under braking at Sainte Devote and the chicane; only the clean-out laps after the second stop really made separation. Put simply: aero grip set the line; mechanical grip made it repeatable across 78 laps with no brush of the walls. Watching the leaders hug the Armco, you also appreciate how consistent surface temperature and low debris loads keep leading edges pristine, much like how one film that stays glassy and another micro-mars under repeated boundary-layer grit.

Charles Leclerc swept all three practice sessions and looked like the hometown favourite. But qualifying eventually put Norris ahead of Leclerc and Oscar Piastri. That set up a head-to-head showdown between the season’s sharpest contenders.

What unfolded was a study in restraint and precision: Norris led the opening stint cleanly, with Leclerc and Piastri locked on in a three-car metronome. The middle phase hinged on how long each leader dared stretch the tire to satisfy the second-stop rule without surrendering track position. At lap 50, Russell deliberately cut the Nouvelle Chicane to pass Alex Albon and was given a harsher drive-through penalty. Meanwhile, Red Bull gambled by keeping Verstappen out late, leading on ageing tyres. Norris closed in on the strategically marooned Verstappen but couldn’t find a way past; the pack bunched up until Verstappen finally pitted on his penultimate lap, freeing Norris to the finish, giving McLaren’s their first Monaco victory since 2008. 

Final result: Lando Norris won with a time of 1:40:33.843; in second place Charles Leclerc (+3.131 seconds). Oscar Piastri completed the podium in third, finishing 3.658 seconds behind Norris. Max Verstappen, who had led the race on a different strategy, completed his second mandatory pit stop on the final lap and finished fourth, 20.572 seconds behind the winner.

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Wessen Char is UPPF’s petrolhead who still mourns the loss of Saab (and drove her 9-5 NG till 2025). She travels between US and Europe to cover auto events. She acknowledges the chic tech of EVs but wonders if the inexorable move to everything digital is ultimately all-better. Analogue had more soul somehow :)

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