Norris Defeats Leclerc, Piastri To Win Monaco Grand Prix
Lando Norris fought off close competition from Charles Leclerc, and Oscar Piastri to win the Monaco Grand Prix, his first victory of the 2025 Formula one season.
The McLaren driver produced a dominant performance, taking the lead from the pole position at the beginning of the race.
Leclerc settled for second despite giving Norris a run for his money before dropping out of the race in the last minutes.
The victory moved him to within three points of his McLaren teammate, and leader Oscar Piastri, who finished third.
Piastri recorded a seventh consecutive podium finish to earn the third spot after Max Verstappen bottled the position despite leading until the penultimate lap when he took his final pit stop.
The Dutchman eventually finished fourth in the race.
Lewis Hamilton finished fifth while Rookie Isack Hadjar earned his career-best F1 result to end up in sixth.
Norris was delighted to earn his first victory of the season while admitting that it was a tough race.
He said: “It feels amazing. It’s a long, gruelling race, but good fun. We could push for much of the race.
“The last quarter was stressful with Leclerc behind and Max ahead, but we won in Monaco. This is what I dreamed of when I was a kid, so I achieved one of my dreams.
“The worst bit was the end. I felt quite under control the whole race but Max was backing it up a little bit and I knew Charles had opportunities. I tried to back off Max so I could push when I needed to. I’m very happy, my team are very happy. Therefore we’re going to have a wonderful night!”
Second-placed Charles Leclerc admitted that Norris deserved to win the race while demanding improvement from his team.
He said: “At the end of the day, we lost the race yesterday, we should have done a better job, Lando [Norris] did a better job this weekend and he deserves the win.
“On my side, I achieved my childhood dream last year, not this year. I did not expect this, I thought being in the top 10 was going to be a challenge and in the end we are second. It’s been a good weekend overall, but I wish I had won.”
Championship leader Oscar Piastri, who is now two points clear of Lando Norris in the driver’s table, was disappointed with his performance in the race.
He said: “Yeah, obviously the win would have been better. It’s been a bit of a tricky weekend, practice was messy all the way through, I felt like I got into qualifying with not a lot of confidence with how the weekend was going. I got close but not quite close enough. Qualifying is pretty much where you finish.
“Pretty happy with that overall, obviously some things to look at for when we come here next year but we got points on the board and another podium at Monaco, so it’s not all bad.
“The margins are so fine. If this is a bad weekend, it’s not going too badly at all. Some things to work on and we’ll go again next week. Well done to Lando for a great weekend and well done to Charles for being as quick as usual.”
Up next in Formula One, is the Spanish Grand Prix in Spain next week at Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya which is the last of the European triple-header.
Norris Defeats Leclerc, Piastri To Win Monaco Grand Prix is first published on The Whistler Newspaper
