With the W10 being very strong in the slow corners, Mercedes came to Monaco as favourites. During qualifying, Mercedes justified their status as the team to beat. Hamilton took pole position in a last lap effort while setting a new track record of 1:10.166 s, beating Bottas by less than a tenth of a second. It was the fifth front-row lockout of the season. Hamilton and Bottas led from the start until debris from Leclerc's car brought out an early safety car on lap 11. Hamilton pitted for medium tyres and managed to stay ahead. However, Bottas collided with Max Verstappen in the pit lane after an unsafe release from Red Bull. This caused a slow puncture meaning that Bottas had to pit for a second time which left him in fourth position. Of the front runners, only Hamilton was on the mediums while Verstappen, Vettel and Bottas who were directly behind him were on the hard compound. A 5-second penalty for his unsafe release made Verstappen push for the lead. In contrast, Hamilton needed to preserve the tyre life of his mediums. As the race came toward the end, Hamilton held onto a narrow lead with a "dead" front left tyre. On lap 76, Verstappen made his one serious move on the Briton, launching himself down the inside of Hamilton into the Nouvelle Chicane. Hamilton shut the door, with Verstappen's front right making light contact with Hamilton's rear left. After that tense move, Hamilton went on to win the race which he later described as "probably the hardest race" he'd had. Verstappen was relegated to fourth position due to his penalty, moving Bottas into third. While Mercedes failed to score a sixth consecutive 1–2, the team still managed to score another double-podium finish.