2024 Monaco GP

George and Lewis come home P5 and P7

A lap one red flag led to a Monaco Grand Prix dominated by tyre management.

After an incredibly tight qualifying, George and Lewis started the prestigious race from 5th and 7th on the grid. Both lined up on new Hard tyres - an alternative strategy from the drivers up front on used Medium.

Both drivers got off to a good start, with George successfully defending his position against Verstappen. Contrary to Perez and both Haas drivers, who came together in a huge crash that brought out the red flag. Bad news for the Mercedes duo, as the Medium starters had the chance to switch to the Hard tyre and ultimately go to the end of the race without making another pit stop.

After a collision with his teammate, Ocon also had to retire. At 15:44, the race was resumed. George and Lewis fitted new Medium tyres with the plan to take them to the end. After a clean standing restart where both drivers held positions, the key to a solid result was now tyre management.

There was a lot more pace in the W15, but managing tyre wear was more important at that stage of the race. After 25 laps, George's gap to Norris was already 13 seconds, and Lewis was 3 seconds behind Verstappen. Halfway through the race, the Mercedes duo was still P5 and P7, and successfully conserving their Medium tyres.

George Russell

That was the best race of our season so far. We had good pace and were able to show that near the end, despite being on 70-lap old Medium tyres. We were closing on the top four at the end and only finished a handful of seconds off P1. There are plenty of positives to take from the weekend as a whole.

We spent a lot of time this morning going through all the strategy options. When we lined up on the grid, and everyone ahead was on the Medium compound, I was very happy. That looked even better when Carlos (Sainz) stopped on the opening lap. The red flag came out though and made our lives more difficult! I spent the first 30 laps taking it easy and in the end, I was able to keep the tyres in a good place and get to the end. Max (Verstappen) put me under a bit of pressure at the end but it was all pretty controlled.

Toto Wolff, Team Principal & CEO

Overall, we’ve had a positive weekend. We were much closer than we have been in Qualifying so far this year and showed good pace throughout the race. That was despite the first lap red flag which took away many of our strategy options. We opted to switch to the Medium compound tyres under that red flag and both George and Lewis did a good job to manage them throughout. Lewis didn’t need to make a stop, but we were able to box him and secure the point for fastest lap.

The trajectory is going in the right direction. We’ve understood where we need to improve the balance car and we’re bringing updates to enhance that. We know there will be ups and downs depending on the circuits we go to but overall, I am happy with the development direction. Let’s see how we perform in Canada.

2024 Monaco GP Result