McLaren’s Lando Norris cut his title deficit with victory at the 2025 Monaco Grand Prix.
Norris led much of the mandatory two-stop race but after his second stop, he had to wait until Max Verstappen made his second stop at the end of the penultimate lap to reassume the lead and claim his first win on the streets of Monaco.
Charles Leclerc finished second ahead of Piastri whilst Verstappen settled for fourth.
Speaking to 2009 Monaco GP winner and champion – Jenson Button post race, Norris described his first win in the Principality as “amazing”, even though he did have to survive late pressure from Leclerc.
“The last quarter, I was a little nervous with Charles behind and Max ahead, but we won in Monaco. It doesn’t matter how you win, I guess. An amazing weekend, with pole, with today.
“This is what I dreamed of when I was a kid, so I achieved one of my dreams. I think it was you [Jenson Button], I saw you in front of my car before the start and I thought, if JB’s here now, he’s my good luck charm. Is ‘Monaco, baby’, yours? I apologise.”
Lewis Hamilton jumped Isack Hadjar in his first stop to finish fifth ahead of the Frenchman, whilst Esteban Ocon, Liam Lawson, Alex Albon and Carlos Sainz rounded out the top ten.
In the drivers’ standings, Piastri’s title lead over Norris was reduced to just three points whilst McLaren continue to head the constructors’ standings.
At lights out, Norris made a clean start aside from a lock-up at St Devote to head the top 14 whilst Mercedes’ Andrea Kimi Antonelli briefly lost 15th to Gabriel Bortoleto at Lowes Hairpin, yet he managed to snatch the inside line into Portier and squeezed the Sauber into the barriers.
Bortoleto however was able to find reverse gears and rejoin the race albeit under Virtual Safety Car until the end of Lap 4 as marshals repaired the barriers.
This year is the first Monaco GP to have a mandatory two-stopper and saw Yuki Tsunoda, Pierre Gasly, Oliver Bearman plus Bortoleto pit at the end of the opening lap to try and jump the field later on.
Further up the field, Racing Bulls strategically used Lawson to back up those from 10th down which allowed Hadjar to complete his two stops on Laps 15 and 20 using all three tyre compounds, and the rookie re-joined eighth on both occasions albeit jumped by Hamilton for fifth on Lap 19.
Gasly’s early pit stop however backfired on Lap 8 as his rear axle locked under braking at the Nouvelle Chicane, which sent him into the rear of Tsunoda’s Red Bull to end his race with his front left tyre dangling off as he crawled back to the pit lane.
Up front, Norris built a gap over Leclerc as he became the first frontrunner to pit at the end of Lap 19, with Piastri and Leclerc following suit at the end of Laps 20 and 22 respectively as the trio pitted from medium tyres for hard tyres.
Verstappen had opted for an alternative strategy of starting on the hard tyre in hope of undercutting Piastri but despite a slow stop for the Aussie, he was able to prevent the four-time champion from undercutting him by the time Verstappen pitted at the end of Lap 28.
The order soon settled down once Lawson and Albon made their stops which left only Williams’ Sainz plus Mercedes’ George Russell and Antonelli yet to stop come Lap 35, whilst Bortoleto switched to a brave three-stop strategy to try and salvage his race.
Aston Martin’s Fernando Alonso continued his luckless start to the season as he retired on Lap 38 with a power unit failure, during which he avoided a safety car with a clever park-up down the escape road at Rascasse.
Leclerc and Piastri made their second stops on Lap 49 whilst Norris followed suit a lap later but Verstappen stayed out and proceeded to back Norris into the grasp of Leclerc in the closing stages, but Norris and Leclerc worked together to catch up to the rear of Verstappen by Lap 70.
Neither driver could find their way past Verstappen and Piastri eventually caught up to the trio by the end of Lap 73 to set up a tense finish.
Verstappen however hung his Red Bull out and eventually stopped at the end of Lap 77 to leave Norris to take his first Monaco GP win from Leclerc and Piastri, which made him the first McLaren driver to win F1’s crown jewel since his British compatriot – Hamilton in 2008.
F1 now heads to Barcelona, Spain, from 30 May – 1 June to complete this triple-header with Norris now hot on Piastri’s heel in the title race.
| Position | Driver | Team | Laps | Time |
| 1 | Lando Norris | McLaren | 78 | 1h 40m 33.843 |
| 2 | Charles Leclerc | Ferrari | 78 | + 3.131 |
| 3 | Oscar Piastri | McLaren | 78 | + 3.658 |
| 4 | Max Verstappen | Red Bull | 78 | + 20.572 |
| 5 | Lewis Hamilton | Ferrari | 78 | + 51.387 |
| 6 | Isak Hadjar | Racing Bulls | 77 | + 1 Lap |
| 7 | Esteban Ocon | Haas | 77 | + 1 Lap |
| 8 | Liam Lawson | Racing Bulls | 77 | + 1 Lap |
| 9 | Alex Albon | Williams | 76 | + 2 Laps |
| 10 | Carlos Sainz | Williams | 76 | + 2 Laps |
| 11 | George Russell | Mercedes | 76 | + 2 Laps |
| 12 | Oliver Bearman | Haas | 76 | + 2 Laps |
| 13 | Franco Colapinto | Alpine | 76 | + 2 Laps |
| 14 | Gabriel Bortoleto | Sauber | 76 | + 2 Laps |
| 15 | Lance Stroll | Aston Martin | 76 | + 2 Laps |
| 16 | Nico Hulkenberg | Sauber | 76 | + 2 Laps |
| 17 | Yuki Tsunoda | Red Bull | 76 | + 2 Laps |
| 18 | Andrea Kimi Antonelli | Mercedes | 75 | + 3 Laps |
| RET | Fernando Alonso | Aston Martin | 37 | Power |
| RET | Pierre Gasly | Alpine | 7 | Collision |