Max fourth in Monaco: 'We had nothing to lose'

Published on 25 May 2025 by Florence Cobben

Max has finished the iconic Monaco Grand Prix in fourth. It was Lando Norris who managed to win the race ahead of hometown hero Charles Leclerc, after a race featuring a mandatory two pitstops. It is his second win of the year. McLaren-teammate Oscar Piastri completed the podium, who still maintains the lead of the world championship.

Following the end of the race, Max says via his team radio: “We tried something, it’s just Monaco, you know? It’s tricky, but again, decent points. And we’ll move on to Barcelona!”

Max shared his thoughts about the mandatory two-stop after the race: “You can’t race here. It doesn’t matter what you do. One stop, ten stops. I mean: even at the end, I was in the lead, my tyres were completely gone and you still can’t pass. I think nowadays, with an F1 car, you can just about pass an F2 car around here. I get (why they tried two mandatory pitstops) but I don’t think it has worked.” 

Regarding Red Bull’s strategy, Max shares: “We had nothing to lose. We had a big gap to Hamilton, so like I said – I could’ve done four stops and still had the same (finishing) position. That’s Monaco for you. Qualifying is super important. Normally when nothing bad happens, you don’t move forward. If you do normal pitstops, you just keep your position, and that’s exactly what happened today. I don’t think we had the pace anyway to fight the guys ahead. Every time I tried to stay with them, my tyres were wearing a bit too much and graining a bit too much. P4 was definitely the maximum we could’ve (done).” 

The four-time world champion also did a quick preview of next week’s race in Barcelona. Starting from that Grand Prix, new regulations will be introduced on the flexi-wings. “I hope it will make a bit of a difference; I doubt it will make a world of change. If it could swing things a tiny bit in our favor, that’s positive, but let’s see.”

At 15.00 local time, the drivers set off on the formation lap of the Monaco Grand Prix. The top three, Lando Norris (McLaren), Charles Leclerc (Ferrari) and Oscar Piastri (McLaren) started on mediums. Max starts on the hard tyre. At lights out Max comes away well, but doesn’t succeed in passing Piastri. The top eleven maintain their starting position. Meanwhile, towards the back of the field, Kimi Antonelli (Mercedes) and Gabriel Bortoleto (Sauber) fight for fourteenth position, but the altercation ends with the Sauber driver in the wall. He reverses and is back in action. A VSC is nevertheless deployed so the marshals can remove debris from the track. Oracle Red Bull Racing-driver Yuki Tsunoda immediately comes in for a pitstop, with Pierre Gasly (Alpine), Oliver Bearman (Haas), and Bortoleto following his example. 

After a number of uneventful laps pass by, another incident occurs. Gasly reports over the radio that his brakes don’t work and shoots into the back right of Tsunoda in the chicane. The Red Bull driver carries on, but Gasly gets a lot of damage courtesy of the wall. He hobbles into the pit lane on three wheels, and the situation is put to bed with a yellow flag. For the Alpine driver, his race is finished. Meanwhile, Max complains over the team radio about Piastri. The four-time world champion thinks the Australian is defending dangerously. Max is still stuck behind the McLaren-driver on the tight track after 15 laps.

Of the top five, Isack Hadjar is the first to head into the pits. During lap 15, he switches to a soft tyre. He reemerges into a quiet part of the race with little traffic, and into eighth place. The men ahead of the Racing Bulls driver wait longer. Norris is the first to head in, in lap 20, switching to the hard tyre. In the same lap, Hadjar heads into the pits again, and again drops to eighth place. His Racing Bulls-teammate Liam Lawson plays a big role in his success. Lawson drives in ninth, and spends his race pushing back the competition so Hadjar can emerge ahead of the traffic.

Piastri and Leclerc follow sometime later. Piastri has a dissapointing pitstop and emerges in fourth place. Leclerc has a promising pitstop, but nevertheless returns to the race in third place, still behind Norris. Max leads the race in lap 23, but he still has two pitstops looming ahead of him. In lap 29 he heads in for his first pitstop. Max switches to mediums and comes back in fourth place. After thirty laps, Norris is ahead, followed by Leclerc, Piastri, Max, Hamilton and Alonso. The top six have all made one pitstop. Hadjar, in P7, has already completed all the mandatory pitstops. Where the pit lane is busy scheming and changing tyres, the track is relatively quiet. The few overtakes we see are being performed by cars at the front of the field trying to pick their way through the cars at the back of the pack. The different strategies make the traffic on track chaotic. Leclerc expresses his frustration: “This is a joke.” Max complains over the radio that his shifts “feel like Monaco Grand Prix 1972!” Meanwhile, Alonso continues his streak of bad luck. He meets his Waterloo in lap 39, as his car starts emiting fumes. He expertly maneuvers his car into an exit, thereby terminating his race.

The top five's final stops start in lap 49. Piastri ducks first into the pit lane and switches to the hard tyre. In the following lap, Leclerc, followed by Norris, also heads in to change his tyres. Max stays out ahead and leads the race. Meanwhile, the mid-field is beset by chaos. Alexander Albon and Carlos Sainz take turns holding up the rest of the field so both can make a free pitstop. George Russell (Mercedes) loses patience with them and crosses the track, placing him ahead of Albon. The Brit receives a penalty. Max keeps his tyres alive and leads the race up to the penultimate lap, and finally then heads in to pit. He falls back into his starting position. Norris, Leclerc and Piastri have been bunched up together by Max’s slower driving, but it never amounts to any overtaking. Norris wins the Grand Prix of Monaco and decreases the distance to his McLaren-teammate in the lead of the championship to just three points. Leclerc, in his home race, has to satisfy himself with second place. Piastri completes the podium in third, and Max crosses the line fourth.

Results Grand Prix Monaco: