7 Jun 2026
Pierre Gasly took Alpine's best result of the season and Alex Albon put Williams into the points around the streets of Monte Carlo, in a race that also claimed Charles Leclerc, Lando Norris and Max Verstappen among its retirements.
Kimi Antonelli won the Monaco Grand Prix on 7 June from pole, beating Lewis Hamilton by 6.271 seconds, but the story of the race played out further down the order. Pierre Gasly brought his Alpine home third from ninth on the grid — the team's best result of the 2026 season — while Alex Albon's eighth place was Williams' strongest finish of their difficult campaign.
The race was unusually punishing for the sport's bigger names. Charles Leclerc, Lando Norris and Max Verstappen all retired, opening the door for the midfield to capitalise; Isack Hadjar took fourth for Red Bull Racing and Oscar Piastri salvaged fifth for McLaren despite starting from seventh. Racing Bulls had both cars in the points, with Liam Lawson sixth and rookie Arvid Lindblad seventh.
Carlos Sainz's afternoon summed up Williams' wider struggles in miniature: the Spaniard was involved in a collision with Alpine's Franco Colapinto at Turn 8 on lap 74, then a second incident with Audi's Nico Hulkenberg at the same corner four laps later — for which Hulkenberg was handed a 10-second time penalty for causing a collision — before retiring from the race.
Sergio Perez's afternoon brought its own footnote. Cadillac's driver was noted by race control on the opening lap for a practice-start infringement and referred to the stewards for investigation after the race; what had looked like a first Cadillac points finish in tenth was ultimately reclassified down to 15th once the panel ruled.
For Alpine and Williams, two teams occupying the lower half of the constructors' table through the first quarter of the season, Monaco offered a rare weekend where attrition further up the grid turned into genuine points — Gasly's third place alone matched more than half of Alpine's points total from the previous three races combined.
After the worst start of any established team in 2026 — 10th in the constructors' championship on a single point — Aston Martin's 16-part upgrade at the Hungarian Grand Prix cut their race-day deficit from over five seconds a lap to close to two, with Honda's first in-season engine upgrade arriving this weekend at the Dutch Grand Prix.
Four seasons after their last title, Mercedes have won eight of the first eleven 2026 races and lead both championships comfortably at the summer break — with rookie-turned-contender Kimi Antonelli out front and George Russell third, their strongest form since the end of the hybrid-dominance era.
Formula 1's reigning world champion has one grand prix win and three retirements through eleven rounds of 2026 — a season shaped more by McLaren's reliability than by his pace.
Formula 1's newest team enters its second half still searching for a maiden points finish, and does so under new leadership after Cadillac replaced team principal Graeme Lowdon with Marcin Budkowski partway through its debut season.