McLaren driver Lando Norris of Britain celebrates with his team after winning the Formula One Monaco Grand Prix race at the Monaco racetrack in Monaco on May 25, 2025
| Photo Credit: AP
Lando Norris celebrated a dream Monaco Grand Prix win from pole position on Sunday (May 25, 2025) and slashed McLaren team mate Oscar Piastri’s Formula One lead to three points in a race without overtaking and more strategy than speed.
Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc finished runner-up in the home race he won last year, with Piastri third and Red Bull’s Max Verstappen fourth — all four finishing in the order they started.
“This is what I dreamed of when I was a kid, so I achieved one of my dreams,” said Norris of his first win in the principality.
The afternoon featured two mandatory pitstops for the first time but the experiment, while creating some tension as drivers hoped for a safety car or red flag that never came, failed to break the usual procession around the harbourside circuit.
Drivers played a waiting game, with Verstappen holding off his final stop until giving up the lead on the penultimate lap and those behind biding their time while keeping out of trouble.
“Very exciting. I was on the edge of my seat every lap. It was fantastic,” said Verstappen, his words dripping with heavy sarcasm.
“Maybe next year four stops. I could have done four stops today and still finished P4.”
Norris held his nerve, knowing victory would come to him without any overtaking required if he just stayed in line, and lapped all but four cars.
The win was the Briton’s second in eight races — the other coming in the Australian season-opener in March — as well as McLaren’s first in the sport’s blue-riband race since Lewis Hamilton in 2008.
“Monaco baby!,” Norris shouted over the radio as the chequered flag finally fell.
“The last quarter was stressful with Leclerc behind and Max ahead but we won in Monaco,” said the McLaren driver, who provided a frisson of excitement at the start when he locked up slightly at the first corner in a puff of tyre smoke.
Published – May 26, 2025 04:50 am IST
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