Formula 1 News: Norris holds off Leclerc to win GP of Monaco

Polesitter Lando Norris led almost every lap in his superior McLaren and held off Charles Leclerc’s Ferrari to win the 2025 GP of Monaco Formula 1 race.

–by Mark Cipolloni–

Max Verstappen waited until the last lap of the race for his mandatory pitstop and handed the race lead over Lando Norris who held off Leclerc and his teammate Oscar Piastri to win the race by 3.131s.

“It feels amazing. It’s a long race, a long, grueling race,” said a happy Norris. “We could push for the whole race, and we won in Monaco! An amazing weekend with pole, with today. This is what we dream of, this is what I dreamt of as a kid.

“The worst bit was the end, I felt under control the whole race, but Max [Verstappen] was backing it up a little bit and I had to manage it, back off Max and push when I needed to.

“We are going to have a wonderful night!”

It was the first Monaco win for Norris in the superior McLaren designed by former Red Bull engineer Rob Marshall allowing him to close up to just 3 points behind points leader Piastri (161 to 158 points)

“At the end of the day, we lost the race yesterday. We should have done a better job, Lando did a better job, and he deserves the win, said Leclerc.

“It is above our expectations here, I thought we would struggle to be in the top 10 so it has been a good weekend. But I wish I’d won.

“Being born here, seeing all the Monegasque behind me is very special. It warms my heart to be at home and have so much support.”

“Obviously, the win would have been better, but it has been a tricky weekend,” said Piastri.

“Practice was messy all the way through, I got into Qualifying with no a lot of confidence. I got close but not close enough, and you run around here where you started. A podium in Monaco – it’s not all bad.

“The margins are so fine, if this is a bad weekend, then it is not going too badly at all.”

By virtue of his late stop, Verstappen fell back to 4th place, where he started, and 20.572s behind Norris.

Lewis Hamilton brought his #44 Ferrari home in 5th, 51.387s behind Norris.

All the other drivers finished 1 or more laps behind.

Oscar Piastri had a good result, finishing 6th for Racing Bulls. He again beat Yuki Tsunoda as he loos to take over Tsunoda’s seat alongside Verstappen.

Hadjar was a brilliant sixth ahead of The Haas of Esteban Ocon and teammate Liam Lawson. Williams teammates Alex Albon and Carlos Sainz Jr. wounded out the top 10 ahead of Russell, who somehow held on to P11 despite his chaotic last third of the race.

Thanks to the double points haul, Racing Bulls jumped Aston Martin into seventh in the standings, just four points behind Haas now. Williams remains with a sizable gap to the rest of the midfield in fifth, even if they only picked up the minor points today.

Spain follows next weekend, as the races keeps coming thick and fast. Eight races and two Sprints done and dusted, meaning we are a third of the way through the season.

Three drivers (Piastri, Norris and Verstappen) are very much in the fight for the title too, and those three have each won one of the last three races.

2025 GP of Monaco Race Results -78 Laps