With pole sitter Charles Leclerc not starting the race after the left drive shaft of his Ferrari (which he crashed in qualifying) failed on his installation lap, the door to Verstappen was opened.
He led from start to finish as his closest rival Valtteri Bottas had to give up after a stub on the right front wheel tore off during his pit stop, which put Ferrari’s Carlos Sainz Jr in second and McLaren’s Lando Norris in third.
Results of the Monaco F1 Grand Prix 2021
How the Monaco Grand Prix developed
From P2 on the grid, but effectively from pole position due to Leclerc’s absence, Verstappen struck over the bow of Bottas and led into Sainte Devote.
Ferrari’s only participant, Sainz, was third ahead of Norris and AlphaTauris Pierre Gasly, with leader Lewis Hamilton (Mercedes) in sixth. Sebastian Vettel (Aston Martin) fended off an early attack from Red Bulls Sergio Perez, Antonio Giovinazzi (Alfa Romeo) and Esteban Ocon (Alpine) completed the top 10. Aston’s Lance Stroll was the leading starter with medium-sized tires in 11th place.
Bottas began to struggle with his soft tires over a third of the distance, allowing Sainz to get closer while Verstappen increased his lead to over 5 seconds.
Hamilton triggered the pit stop cycle on lap 30 and switched to hard tires to undercut Gasly. He failed to do so, however, and his anger was compounded when Vettel managed to jump forward both Gasly and Hamilton using the overcut strategy of running longer while pushing hard. Vettel barely clung to the pitch after making it through Beau Rivage side by side with Gasly when he got back in after his pit stop.
Bottas pitted a lap later than Hamilton, but the right front wheel cannon machined the thread of the steering knuckle so the mechanics couldn’t remove the wheel. Bottas had to retire and promoted Sainz to second and Norris to third, even though Norris had received a black and white flag warning for going straight through the Nouvelle chicane, which threatened him with a 5s penalty if he did it again.
Sainz pitted on lap 33, followed by Verstappen one lap later. Perez let go of that for a moment, and when the air was clear he jumped from eighth to fourth place after his pit stop.
Sainz returned 5 seconds behind Verstappen and temporarily reduced his lead to less than 3 seconds, but had nothing to really challenge for victory and fell back by almost 10 seconds when he suffered from tire grit.
Behind distant Norris, who was also struggling with his second set of tires, Perez chased him home in fourth, ahead of Vettel, Gasly, Hamilton (who was angry with his racing strategy but took the extra point for the fastest lap), Stroll (who jumped from 11th to eighth place after a long first stint), Ocon and Giovinazzi.
