A Curse was lifted in Monaco; curses are a part of sports. The Curse of the Billy Goat lasted 108 years for the Chicago Cubs, and The Curse of the Bambino lasted 86 years for the Boston Red Sox. Motorsports is no different, Dale Earnhardt was one of the best to ever race especially at Daytona taking him 20 years to win the 500, Odd circumstances caused him to lose from cutting a tire in the closing laps to hitting a bird causing enough damage to mess his car up. However, curses can be broken.
Who Says You Can’t Go Home?
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The Monaco Grand Prix is a blast from the past, one of Formula One’s oldest tracks on the calendar. The tight street course is a great equalizer for the field. Charles LeClerc hailing from Monaco finally seals the deal. LeClerc has had to endure so much heartache, and so much frustration to get to this point Finally steps to the top of the podium on his home soil.
LeClerc, starting on pole for the third time in his career, held off the hard-charging Oscar Piastri to get his first win since the 2022 Australian Grand Prix. The Ferrari’s upgrades at Imola last week have closed that gap to Red Bull. Making it a three-way fight for the constructor’s championship and potentially a four-way fight for the driver’s championship.
At the Monaco Grand Prix, two teams were the cream of the crop, Ferrari and McLaren. Red Bull and Mercedes were left in the dust. Amassing nearly 20-second gap between Lando Norris in fourth and George Russell in fifth. All while, everyone was nearly ten seconds off the qualifying pace, trying to double the recommended tire stint due to the safety of the car on the opening lap.
Full Metal Monaco Mayhem on Lap One
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On the opening lap of the Monaco Grand Prix, everything broke loose. Carlos Sainz the second Ferrari driver went wide in turn one and punctured a tire and would have forced him to pit and be out of contention. Deeper in the field, however, two separate incidents bailed out Sainz. In the first incident, HAAS F1’s Kevin Magnussen forcing the issue and gets squeezed into the wall turning Sergio Perez and HAAS teammate Nico Hulkenberg getting caught up in mayhem.
Magnussen already has 10 points on his FIA Super License. If given two more points for the crash, then that would lead to an automatic race ban. That would lead Ferrari junior driver Oliver Bearman to drive the HAAS for the Canadian Grand Prix. For Perez, his Red Bull seat is only heating up as his slump continues and the rumors continue to swirl about his seat.
The second incident involved both of the Alpine drivers, Esteban Ocon and Pierre Gasley. Ocon tried cutting the nose off of Gasley, in the attempt his rear tire lined up with Gasley’s front tire sending the rear end of Ocon’s car in the air and smashing back down to earth. The hard landing caused terminal damage to the rear suspension, giving Ocon a DNF. Alpine Boss Bruno Famin told French outlet Canal+:
Esteban’s attack was completely out of line. It’s exactly what we didn’t want to see, and there will be consequences, We are going to make a tough decision. On the first lap at the Portier, it was not the place to make a move, leaving no room for his team-mate
Point Standings after Monaco
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Max Verstappen still leads the point standings, but LeClerc is 31 points behind in closing the gap. LeClerc is showing he is the model of consistency, with his lowest finish being fourth. Lando Norris sits third, 56 points behind Verstappen, with Carlos Sainzs, after being bailed out by the mayhem and able to keep his fourth place position, sitting fourth in points, 62 points behind.
The Constructors Championship Still has Red Bull on top but only by 24 points to Ferrari. McLaren sits third in the points 92 points behind Red Bull while only 1 team remains without a point in the championship standings and that being Kick Sauber with Valtteri Bottas and Guanyo Zhou who will be transformed into Audi in 2026 with the new engine comes into play.
The next race in the Formula One calendar is the Canadian Grand Prix on June 9th. Lights go out at 2:00 pm Eastern on ABC.
About The Author
Dillon Hildreth is a writer for Total Apex and a lifelong fan of Football with his favorite teams being the New England Patriots and the Georgia Bulldogs. Dillon is also a fan of Motorsports Red Bull in Formula One and William Byron in NASCAR. You can catch Dillon Stream F1, NASCAR, and other video games and sidecasts on Youtube.
