The home hero was running third when he slammed into the barriers at Turn 19 on the safety car restart, bringing out the red flag and ending his race in the cruelest fashion on the streets of Monte Carlo.
Kimi Antonelli won the Formula 1 Louis Vuitton Grand Prix de Monaco 2026 on Sunday, June 7 to extend his lead at the top of the Drivers’ Championship, but the story of the afternoon belonged just as much to Charles Leclerc — and not in the way Monaco had hoped. The Monegasque star’s race ended in heartbreak on lap 66 when he ploughed into the barriers at the final corner on a safety car restart, robbing him of a near-certain podium on home soil and triggering a red flag that halted proceedings for over half an hour.
The race capped a frustrating weekend for Leclerc. He was plagued by issues with his Ferrari throughout, admitting after qualifying that he did not “really know where to brake” around the Circuit de Monaco. He briefly topped Q3 before ending the session in the wall as he gave everything in a final attempt to reclaim top spot, ultimately lining up fourth on the grid.
In the race itself, Leclerc had recovered well and was sitting in third place — on fresh tyres after pitting under a safety car — and closing rapidly on team-mate Lewis Hamilton ahead of him. A podium finish at his home race looked achievable. Then came the moment that will haunt him.
The race was just restarting after a safety car intervention following Lance Stroll’s crash when Leclerc crashed his Ferrari at the final corner on lap 66, ending his day and bringing out the safety car again, before the race was red-flagged. Leclerc had picked up marbles and locked up into the corner, hitting the barrier in almost identical fashion to Stroll moments before. Anguished, he hit his steering wheel in frustration. “These brakes!” the enraged home hero said over team radio.
The FIA said the red flag suspension was called for an inspection of a suspected track break-up at Turn 19, though ironically both Stroll and Leclerc pointed to mechanical issues rather than the surface as the cause of their crashes. After temporary repairs at the last corner, the race restarted at 5:12pm local time, just over half an hour after the stoppage.
When racing resumed, Antonelli controlled the restart and held off Hamilton in the closing laps to take the win. Onto the final lap, Antonelli had a lead of over five seconds. Isack Hadjar claimed third, with Oscar Piastri fourth after Pierre Gasly’s ten-second penalties were applied. It was a remarkable performance from the 19-year-old Mercedes driver, who had qualified on pole with a lap of 1:12.051 — becoming the first Italian to win five consecutive races since Alberto Ascari achieved the feat for Ferrari in 1952.
The afternoon was a disaster for several others too. Lando Norris, the reigning world champion, fell prey to the Monaco curse and retired with power unit issues after complaining about the battery. George Russell, Antonelli’s title rival at Mercedes, received a drive-through penalty for mishandling a pit stop infraction and finished outside the points — a result that effectively ends his realistic championship ambitions.
For Leclerc and Monaco, the pain is familiar. The principality’s most famous son has now gone two years without converting his home race into a win, and with Ferrari’s brake issues an unresolved thread throughout this weekend, there will be difficult conversations ahead at Maranello before Barcelona next week.
