Monaco. It’s the most prestigious motor race in the world, and Lando Norris can say he has won it.
Only six other Britons stretching back to Stirling Moss in the Fifties have triumphed in the Principality, and the 25-year-old Bristolian is McLaren’s first winner here since Lewis Hamilton in 2008.
‘My kids will one day be able to tell everyone that I won Monaco,’ he said. ‘It will be up there. Pole and the race win – things to be proud of for the rest of my life.’
True enough. So, all’s well in Formula One’s paradise?
Hardly, the fabled event is prone to be a procession. It faced that accusation again last night despite some controversial tinkering to a mandatory two-stop race – or ‘manufactured racing’ as no less than Norris called the attempts to inject drama.
Actually, although the changes were arguably worth a try, they produced no overtaking at all.
Lando Norris held off the rest of the field from pole to win in Monaco for the first time
Norris cut team-mate Oscar Piastri’s lead at the top of the World Championship to three points
So should F1 introduce more innovations, bordering on gimmicks? World champion Max Verstappen argued not. Alluding to a video game, the Red Bull man said: ‘We’d almost be doing Mario Kart. Maybe you can throw some bananas around. I don’t know – a slippery surface.’
Not that these recriminations dent Norris’s achievement. He seized pole with the fastest lap ever driven through the barrier-lined streets and retained his lead at the start after a lock-up sent up a puff of blue smoke.
He was then sure-footed throughout, holding his nerve after being bunched up into Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc over the closing stages, by Verstappen on a different strategy, to win by over three seconds. Leclerc was runner-up and Oscar Piastri third in the other McLaren.
A fine showing restored Norris to winning ways after his loss of belief in the face of Piastri’s blast into the championship lead. But the Australian’s advantage is cut to three points, his weekend lacking the rhythm and assurance of Norris’s.
‘Monaco, baby!’ exclaimed Norris over the radio. It was a line that Jenson Button, victorious here in 2009, when he ran down the pit lane having parked up in the wrong spot, had first used. Norris can be forgiven the plagiarism – he was aged only nine then.
He embraced his father Adam and his mother Cisca and reached a hand out across the throng of team members to girlfriend Margarida Corceiro before a TV interview with Button and then the handing over of the winner’s pot by Prince Albert.
Later Norris and HSR would sit next to each other at the traditional winner’s dinner at the Grimaldi Palace that stands sentry over the harbour.
Norris has cut a determined figure these last few days, his manner more relaxed than recently. For the first time in ages, by a just perceptible degree, he sounded like a man on the verge of a revitalising victory, his second of the season after a nervous wait since Melbourne two months ago.
Monegasque Charles Leclerc could not win his home race for the second successive year
While his lead was slashed, Piastri still completed a double-podium finish for McLaren
‘People can write what they want,’ he said afterwards, some wounds still leaking. ‘They can have opinions. Ninety per cent of it is not true. It is crap. As long as I and my team know the truth. I’ve worked hard to get motivation and confidence back to where it was in Australia.’
He added that he was pleased to have got his qualifying on song again, returning to his life-long standards over one lap.
Monaco is super-demanding no matter the lack of wheel-to-wheel racing. That must be remembered to Norris’s credit even as the place’s worthiness as a modern Formula One playground is dissected once again.
Did the new two-stop rule work in the victor’s assessment? Norris, despite his sunny day, was not so sure. ‘I don’t want manufactured racing,’ he said. ‘We should do better with the cars and tyres. It’s not good introducing too many pit stops. It is a sport, not a show.’Verstappen’s verdict dripped with sarcasm. ‘Very exciting,’ said the quadruple world champion of the fare. ‘I was on the edge of my seat. I could have done four stops today and still finished P4. Up front it did not do anything.’
True, nothing changed from the starting grid among the leading men. Ferrari’s Lewis Hamilton, who finished fifth and more than 50 seconds off the pace, moved up a couple of places by dint of stops ahead of him. Big deal.
Perhaps the most vivid jeopardy of the two re-bootings involved Verstappen. He remained out on his second stint until the final lap, hoping a safety car might help him.
Isack Hadjar had a mightily impressive race as he came home in sixth place
His late stop caught many of the crowd unawares. Gasps of astonishment rang down from the grandstands as he peeled into the pits. People thought he was going to win.
Elsewhere, Racing Bulls and Williams used one of their drivers in turn to bunch up the field to allow their other driver a free stop. Sometimes the slower driver was four seconds off their potential speed.
Mercedes’ George Russell had enough of this tactic and cut the chicane to wiggle ahead of Williams’ Albon, his best pal among his rivals. Russell was given a drive-through penalty for his misdemeanour but thought ‘screw it’ in order to enjoy some freedom.
Mercedes’s strategists were asleep at the wheel all afternoon, both Russell and Kimi Antonelli going hugely longer than anyone else on their first stint. Russell finished 11th after breaking down in qualifying and starting 14th, and Antonelli came home 18th and last.
