2026 Monaco Grand Prix: Antonelli Becomes Youngest Winner After Red Flag Drama

• Kimi Antonelli won his fifth consecutive race and became the youngest Monaco Grand Prix winner at 19 years and 9 months, breaking Lewis Hamilton’s 18-year-old record.
• The race was red-flagged on lap 68 after the track surface broke up at Antony Noghes, causing crashes for Lance Stroll and Charles Leclerc and triggering a 37-minute stoppage for repairs.
• George Russell finished 13th after a drive-through penalty for incorrectly serving an earlier sanction, leaving him 68 points behind Antonelli in a championship that is rapidly slipping away.

Antonelli Wins The 2026 Monaco Grand Prix

Kimi Antonelli won the 2026 Monaco Grand Prix from pole position to claim his fifth straight victory and become the youngest driver to win at the Circuit de Monaco at 19 years and 9 months old. The Italian broke Lewis Hamilton’s record, set when Hamilton won his first Monaco race with McLaren in 2008 at the age of 23. Hamilton finished second on Sunday, and in the cool-down room before the podium he turned to Antonelli and said: “That’s a lot of wins buddy, you’re catching me up, man!”

Antonelli’s dominance through the first two-thirds of the race was total. By lap 60 of 78, he had built a lead of more than 30 seconds and lapped every car on the grid except the second and third-placed runners. The gap was erased when a late safety car and then a red flag intervened, but Antonelli dealt with both restarts cleanly to extend his championship lead to 66 points over Hamilton and 68 over teammate George Russell.

Track Surface Breaks Up at Antony Noghes

The race was interrupted on lap 68 after the temporary street surface began cutting up at the final corner, Turn 19, named after the man who founded the Monaco Grand Prix in 1929. Lance Stroll was the first to crash at the damaged section, bringing out the safety car. Charles Leclerc, who had already been called into the pits by Ferrari for fresh tyres under the safety car, then hit the wall at La Rascasse on his way back through the field.

With debris and damage to the racing surface from both incidents, race control chose to red-flag the event. The stoppage lasted 37 minutes while circuit workers carried out temporary repairs to the tarmac at Antony Noghes. By the time the cars lined up for a second standing start, two hours and 15 minutes had passed since the first formation lap. Antonelli handled the restart without drama, holding his lead into Sainte-Devote and pulling away over the final ten laps.

“The red flag added a bit of stress, especially knowing the restart could change everything, but we handled it well,” Antonelli said. “In the final laps, I really enjoyed myself out there, even though I still had to carefully manage the tyres. This track demands a lot of focus, you have to find the right balance between pushing and not making mistakes, and once you settle into that rhythm, everything starts to come together.”

Verstappen Stalls on the Grid

Max Verstappen’s race lasted a matter of metres. The four-time world champion felt something wrong during the formation lap, and when the lights went out, his Red Bull went dead.

“During the formation lap I could feel that something was off and the pre-start was terrible,” Verstappen said. “There was no consistency and then, at the start, the engine just dropped out. I dropped the clutch and it went dead and had no power. When I got a bit more power back, unfortunately it was messed up so I had to bring it back slowly.”

The result was a DNF from a weekend where Verstappen and Red Bull had shown their strongest pace of the 2026 season. “It was such a shame for us as everything was going really well up to that point,” he said. “We felt great in the car all weekend and to come out with no points and to finish the race like this when you do everything so well as a Team is of course disappointing.”

Russell’s Weekend Goes From Bad to Worse

George Russell arrived in Monaco 43 points behind Antonelli. He left 68 adrift after another scoreless afternoon. Russell had worked his way up to fourth in the race, but a pit lane speeding infringement earned him a five-second penalty. When his team failed to serve it correctly at his second stop, the stewards upgraded it to a drive-through penalty, dropping him to 13th.

“I had managed to get to P4 but the penalty for speeding in the pitlane is difficult to understand,” Russell said. “I was under the limit but then that was compounded by us not serving the penalty at my second stop; that ultimately cost me a lot and left me with zero points again.”

Russell described himself as “bamboozled” by the sequence of events. Two consecutive races without points, in Canada and now Monaco, have cost him roughly 40 points and any realistic grip on the championship. “It’s tough to take but I’m not going to give up,” he said. “Across the last two races, I’ve effectively lost around 40 points. It’s incredibly frustrating but the rest of the season can still look very different. I believe in myself and I know what I’m capable of.”

Hadjar Takes First Podium Under Pressure

Isack Hadjar finished third for Racing Bulls to claim his first Formula 1 podium, though the result came at the end of what he called “the longest race of my life.” Drivability problems struck within the first 10 to 15 laps and stayed with him for the remaining 60.

“If there’s one track you don’t want that, it’s here, so that was incredibly challenging,” Hadjar said. “There was then uncertainty about what was going to happen with the red flag and you need to get your head back again in focus. Even towards the end, I was still lacking power on the restart.”

With a possible stewards’ investigation looming, Hadjar was philosophical. “Whatever happens with the stewards, it’s now completely out of my control,” he said. “I celebrated and had my podium and I will always have that. My moment with the lads.”

Oscar Piastri finished fourth, one place ahead of where McLaren started their 1,000th Grand Prix weekend hoping to challenge. Reigning world champion Lando Norris, the 2025 Monaco winner, retired on lap 49 with engine failure.

Hamilton Pays Tribute to Former Team

Hamilton’s second place was his best result in the opening six races of 2026 and moved him past Russell into second in the championship. The seven-time world champion, who holds a record 105 career wins, was generous in his assessment of the teenager who replaced him at Mercedes.

“I’d like to start by congratulating Kimi and to the Mercedes team and our family that have done it again,” Hamilton said. “They’ve created an amazing car and Kimi’s done an incredible job delivering weekend to weekend now. It’s great to see and I’m really happy for them.”

Antonelli, who has won every race since his maiden victory in China in March, was asked about the championship lead. He kept it measured. “I mean, the job’s not finished,” he said. “It’s still a long season. We’ve got to keep pushing, keep raising the bar. The goal is to keep performing like this. The team has done an incredible job. They’ve given me, given us an incredible car. I’ve got so much support from the team as well, from my family. So, yeah, it’s a really good moment so far.”

Want more F1Chronicle.com coverage? Add us as a preferred source on Google to your favourites list for the best F1 news and analysis on the internet.

Written by

Jack Renn

Jack Renn is an editor at F1 Chronicle and a veteran motorsport journalist with 25 years of experience covering Formula 1 and international motorsport. A member of the Association Internationale de la Presse Sportive (AIPS), the global body representing accredited sports journalists, Jack has spent his career reporting from paddocks and press rooms across the F1 calendar. His work spans race analysis, technical insight, and in-depth features, giving readers authoritative coverage grounded in decades of firsthand experience at the highest level of the sport.

More articles by Jack Renn →