Britain’s Lando Norris managed to secure victory in the Monaco Grand Prix on May 25th, his first victory since the first race of the 2025 season in Australia. Following his unsuccessful world championship battle against Max Verstappen last season, McLaren’s main man was the favorite to win the title this season. However, his teammate Oscar Piastri’s blistering start to the season left Norris lagging behind.
That all changed in Monaco. Norris took a stunning pole on the Saturday, edging home favorite Charles Leclerc by less than a tenth of a second. On Sunday, the 25-year-old led away from pole and never looked like surrendering the lead, despite coming under some pressure late on from the aforementioned Monegasque star.
The victory has seen the 25-year-old Brit cut his teammates’ championship lead down to just three points, and online gambling sites now make him a contender in the championship battle once again. The popular Bovada gambling site still makes Piastri a +120 betting favorite, but those odds have drifted significantly, while odds on Norris have been slashed to +160. But the intra-McLaren civil war wasn’t the biggest talking point from the recent race.
Should the Monaco Grand Prix Be Dropped From the Calendar?
The Monaco Grand Prix has been one of the beacons of the motor racing world for some time now. Classic battles between the likes of Ayrton Senna and Alain Prost once made the Monte Carlo street race one of the planet’s crown jewels. Nowadays, though, the spectacle is in the headlines for all the wrong reasons.
In recent years, the race has arguably never been more boring. With Formula One cars far too big to overtake on the circuit, the race has become somewhat of a procession. Saturday’s qualifying session is without question more important, and whoever takes pole will usually go on to secure the victory. The powers that be within F1 attempted to make the race more interesting by informing teams that they must make two mandatory pit stops as opposed to the usual one, but the decision backfired spectacularly.
First, the Racing Bulls and then Williams played the team game. With their two drivers positioned next to each other on the track, both teams decided to have their second-placed driver slow down the entire field to allow the driver in front to pit twice and remain in front. They then swapped their drivers over and repeated the trick again. The drivers positioned 11th and lower had their races completely destroyed, so much so that Mercedes’ George Russell cut the famous bus stop chicane in order to overtake Williams’ Alex Albon, receiving a drive-through penalty in the process.
The decision to make two pit stops mandatory couldn’t have gone any worse. The decision actually made the race even more infuriating than it already was, and calls to scrap the race from the calendar have only grown louder. Admittedly, it has plenty of prestige and history, but those glory days are long gone.
Max Verstappen Continues To Fight
After claiming his maiden world championship in controversial fashion in 2021, Max Verstappen romped to two further world titles without much competition. Last season, he built up a huge championship lead early on before McLaren’s midseason upgrades turned their car into a rocket ship. Even so, the Dutchman clung on for a fourth straight crown, but he is firmly an underdog in 2025.
The McLarens of Norris and Piastri are far quicker than Verstappen’s Red Bull; one only needs to take a look at the results of the reigning champions’ teammate Yuki Tsunoda for confirmation of that. While both McLarens are flying high and regular on the podium, Tsunoda hasn’t finished above ninth all season. Verstappen, though, refuses to relinquish his stranglehold despite his car’s limitations and continues to fight tooth and nail in a bid to claim a record-equalling fifth straight title.
The Dutch supremo has won twice so far this term, even though he is in a far slower car. He remains just 25 points off the championship leader, and he will be doing everything in his power to keep his title challenge alive in the coming races. Consistency will be his greatest asset, and if he can continue securing podiums and top-five finishes, he may well have a slim hope of defying the odds and beating both McLarens to the crown.
Lewis Hamilton Shows Signs of Life at Ferrari
In preseason, all the hype surrounded Lewis Hamilton and his move from Mercedes to Ferrari. Many wondered how he would cope alongside teammate Charles Leclerc, who is without question the golden boy. Victory in the Shanghai sprint race had fans thinking that Hamilton was a force once more, but unfortunately for him, his Monegasque teammate has overshadowed him time and again.
In Monaco, that was the case again. However, Hamilton’s fourth place in qualifying – ahead of Verstappen – certainly caught the eye. He suffered a three-place grid penalty for a qualifying infringement, but still recovered to finish the race fifth, and that could well be the catalyst for Hamilton to finally come alive in the famous red of the Scuderia.
