2023 Monaco Grand Prix

## Lap Leaders

The **2023 Monaco Grand Prix** (officially known as the **Formula 1 Grand Prix de Monaco 2023**) was the sixth race of the 2023 FIA Formula One World Championship, held at Circuit de Monaco on the weekend of May 26 to May 28, 2023.

## Background

The event will be held across the weekend of 26–28 May 2023. It will be the sixth round of the 2023 Formula One World Championship. The previously scheduled Emilia Romagna Grand Prix was cancelled due to floods in the region.

McLaren's MCL60 will be run with a special livery celebrating McLaren's achievement of the Triple Crown of Motorsport – McLaren being the only motorsports team to have completed it as of 2023. This livery will also be run at the following Spanish Grand Prix. The car was painted in three segments to commemorate McLaren's first win of each component race. The rear of the car was papaya in reference to the McLaren M16C/D that Johnny Rutherford won the 1974 Indianapolis 500, in the middle was white in tribute to the McLaren MP4/2 that Alain Prost drove when he won the 1984 Monaco Grand Prix, and the front was black in recognition of the McLaren F1 GTR that JJ Lehto, Yannick Dalmas, and Masanori Sekiya drove to victory in the 1995 24 Hours of Le Mans. While the livery McLaren revealed for the 2023 Indianapolis 500 utilises the same design aspects on three different cars, the livery used on the MCL60 combines the three separate designs into one.

### Championship standings before the race

Going into the weekend, Max Verstappen leads the World Drivers' Championship with 119 points, 14 points from his teammate Sergio Pérez, second, and 44 from Fernando Alonso in third. Red Bull Racing, with 224 points, lead the Constructors' Championship from Aston Martin by 104 points and Mercedes by 128 points.

### Entrants

The drivers and teams were the same as the season entry list with no additional stand-in drivers for the race.

### Tyre choices

Tyre supplier Pirelli brought the C3, C4, and C5 tyre compounds (designated hard, medium, and soft, respectively) for teams to use at the event.

## Qualifying

### Qualifying Report

Qualifying was held on 27 May 2023, at 16:00 local time (UTC+2).

Max Verstappen set the quickest time across all three sessions. During the first session, Carlos Sainz Jr.'s time on his first lap was deleted due to exceeding track limits. Sergio Pérez crashed out of the opening St. Devote corner, red-flagging the session and damaging his car. Due to this, he will start in last position. This is not the first time Pérez had crashed out in qualifying; he had done so during the Monaco race the previous year, as well as in Melbourne earlier in the season. His teammate Verstappen tapped the wall following the restart, but no damage was reported. By the end of the first session, Logan Sargeant, the Haas duo of Kevin Magnussen and Nico Hülkenberg, Zhou Guanyu, and Pérez found themselves knocked out.

During the second session, Lando Norris found himself hitting the wall at the Tabac chicane, inflicting minor damage to his car. However, he found himself progressing through the third session; his teammate Oscar Piastri would not. Joining him were Nyck de Vries, Alexander Albon, Lance Stroll and Valtteri Bottas.

During the third and final session, Norris would go out later after quick repairs to his car, though he could not beat Yuki Tsunoda to the line. The session proved to be the tightest of the weekend as Verstappen set the fastest lap during the closing minutes of the session. Just before the session ended and before Verstappen set his pole time, Fernando Alonso (in second), Esteban Ocon (in fourth), and Charles Leclerc (in third with a brief investigation for impeding Norris) all set the fastest lap. Leclerc was dissatisfied with the result, saying he "struggled a lot with the car", while Verstappen said that "in qualifying, you need to go all out and risk it all". Meanwhile, Lewis Hamilton, Pierre Gasly and George Russell made up sixth, seventh and eighth position respectively.

Leclerc was dropped to sixth after the stewards investigated his impeding of Norris earlier in Q3.

## Race

### Race Report

The race was held on 28 May 2023, at 15:00 local time (UTC+2).

George Russell made a mistake with his start; he was not penalised. As the race began, Nico Hülkenberg made contact with Logan Sargeant, which granted the Haas driver a five-second penalty. Sergio Pérez made an early stop to swap to the hards. By lap 14, Carlos Sainz Jr. ran off the Nouvelle chicane, his front wing making contact with Esteban Ocon's right-rear. Sainz decided to continue on. Valtteri Bottas jumped Alexander Albon, with the latter granting himself a new set of hard tyres. His teammate Sargeant would follow, first on hards, and again on softs. By lap 30, Lewis Hamilton put on fresh hards and came out behind Russell.

By lap 20, Ferrari engineers told Sainz to come in to overtake Ocon, though he stayed out. The order was repeated six laps later. Sainz eventually boxed by lap 33 with new mediums, rejoining in seventh and behind Ocon. On team radio, Sainz was frustrated with the strategy. Soon, Pérez came in with new mediums and a new front wing, coming out in last. Lance Stroll reported damage during lap 38, having made contact with Kevin Magnussen. Charles Leclerc went in for fresh mediums, dropping him to eighth; Pierre Gasly failed to overcut Leclerc with new fresh mediums. Lando Norris came in for hards, dropping him a position lower.

A threat of rain was reported during the race; Russell reported drops by turn 3. The first two drivers to switch to intermediates were Stroll and Bottas; soon Zhou Guanyu and Albon followed. While everyone else went for intermediate tyres, Fernando Alonso decided to use medium tyres; he switched to inters the following lap, with Ferrari deciding to double stack. Sainz spun twice, though did not hit the barriers at high speeds. Stroll, however, recieved damage to his car following his front wing lodging itself underneath his front wheels. Max Verstappen grazed the wall at Portier while on mediums, but saved the car from retirement. Magnussen took full wets, having had hards as the rain began; Pérez would utilise the compound later on. However, Magnussen crashed out with damage to his front wing. His mechanics, unprepared for such a change, had to prepare it on the spot. Meanwhile, Sargeant hit the wall at the hairpin, though he recovered the car. Magnussen would go off on turn one, and Stroll went into an escape road at turn five; Russell followed Stroll into the escape road, only to be hit by Pérez. Meanwhile, Hülkenberg was given a 10 second penalty for serving the first one incorrectly. Gasly was shown a black and white flag for exceeding track limits, and Pérez swapped to inters.

The running order on the top three did not change throughout the race. Verstappen's victory marks his second Monaco Grand Prix victory. Ocon finished third and was awarded driver of the day; the first time a French driver was on the podium in Monaco since Olivier Panis in 1996, and his first podium since the 2021 Hungarian Grand Prix (also his first win). Hamilton took the fastest lap.

## Notes

1. ↑ Charles Leclerc received a three-place grid penalty for impeding Lando Norris in Q3.
2. ↑ Includes one point for fastest lap.
3. ↑ George Russell received a five-second time penalty for rejoining the track unsafely. His final position was not affected by the penalty.
4. ↑ Nico Hülkenberg finished 16th, but he received a ten-second time penalty for failing to serve a penalty during a pit stop.
5. ↑ Logan Sargeant received a five-second time penalty for speeding in the pit lane. His final position was not affected by the penalty.
6. ↑ Kevin Magnussen was classified as he completed more than 90% of the race distance.