CNN
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Lando Norris won the Monaco Grand Prix on Sunday, cutting teammate Oscar Piastri’s lead at the top of the drivers’ championship to three points.
“It feels amazing,” Norris told broadcaster Sky Sports after the race. “It’s a long, grueling race, but good fun.”
“Amazing weekend, with pole, with today. This is what I did dream of when I was a kid. So I achieved one of my dreams,” he added.
The British driver began in pole position having put up a record lap in qualifying, and managed to hold onto his lead with Charles Leclerc lurking despite his tires locking up going into the first corner.
It was the closest anyone would come to overtaking Norris, even if a late fightback from the Monégasque driver meant that Norris’ win was not as comfortable as it had looked like it might be for much of the race.
“The last quarter was a little bit nervous, with Charles close behind and Max (Verstappen) ahead. But we won in Monaco, so it doesn’t matter how you win, I guess,” said Norris.
The victory means that the Englishman is the first McLaren driver to win in Monaco since Lewis Hamilton in 2008. The 25-year-old’s previous best finish on the historic track came in 2021, when he placed third.
Leclerc finished second in his home race, with Piastri completing the podium. Verstappen came in fourth, one place ahead of Lewis Hamilton in fifth.
Taking place on the shores of the Mediterranean Sea, in easy view of the luxury yachts moored in the harbor, the Monaco Grand Prix has become synonymous with the glitz and glamor associated with F1 – Kylian Mbappé, Jeff Bezos and Naomi Campbell were among the celebrities in attendance on Sunday.
This year’s Monaco Grand Prix saw new rules designed to liven up a race which, in recent years, has often not lived up to the spectacle surrounding it.
Drivers must now pit at least twice, a ruling which aimed to avoid the kind of procession many fans complain can occur on the narrow, twisiting Monégasque roads on which overtaking is difficult.
In reality, the rule’s main effect was that there was as much attention on how quickly drivers were able to pit as there was on the race itself.
It also affected each driver’s race strategy; Verstappen, for example, waited until the very last moment to box for the second time in case there was a safety car, meaning he wouldn’t lose time in the pits and could hang on to his lead.
As it was, there were no such incidents and he only succeeded in slowing down the race so the field bunched behind him.
Further down the rankings, Isack Hadjar, Esteban Ocon, and Liam Lawson all did well to finish sixth, seventh and eighth respectively. Hadjar, in particular, benefited from teammate Lawson slowing down to hold off the chasing pack.
This story has been updated with additional developments.