Monaco’s 78-lap race turned on the stewards as several drivers were hit with penalties that reshaped the finishing order, and Pierre Gasly lost a podium after crossing the line in third. Gasly was demoted to P7 after two separate five-second pit-lane speeding penalties, while George Russell, Sergio Perez, Nico Hulkenberg, Lewis Hamilton and Franco Colapinto also faced sanctions during the 2026 Monaco Grand Prix.
The race was won by Kimi Antonelli, who claimed his fifth win of the season in what was described as an incredible drive, but the post-race classification quickly became the story for anyone tracking the formula 1 standings. In Monaco, penalties did not just add time; they changed positions, cost points and, in Gasly’s case, took away a place on the podium before the final order was settled.
Perez was among the first to be punished. He received a drive-through penalty for being out of position at the start after pulling into P16 on the grid rather than P18, then picked up a 10-second time penalty at the restart when his front right wheel was outside the starting box. He was also reprimanded for making a practice start in the wrong position on his reconnaissance lap to the grid, a messy sequence that left him sliding from a provisional points finish to P15.
Russell’s afternoon unravelled in a different way. After qualifying in P6, he was handed a five-second time penalty for speeding in the pit lane and then a drive-through penalty for failing to serve the earlier penalty correctly, leaving him classified in P12. Nico Hulkenberg was penalized 10 seconds for causing a collision with Carlos Sainz after tagging him at the hairpin following a standing start after a red flag, and he finished P13.
Gasly’s case was the most painful. He had been in P3 before the penalties were applied, only to be punished twice for speeding in the pit lane and dropped to P7. The Alpine driver said he felt “heartbroken” at losing the podium, and the team has already requested a Right of Review from the FIA. Hamilton also took a five-second pit-lane speeding penalty, but after being investigated for an alleged Safety Car infringement, stewards said no further action was needed and he kept P2. Colapinto was given the same pit-lane penalty and was cleared after an investigation into an alleged collision with Sainz.
Monaco left a clear mark on the standings because the sanctions were not abstract race-control notes; they altered the result sheet in real time. Gasly’s lost podium and Perez’s fall through the order were the most visible examples, and Alpine’s review request now leaves open whether the final word on one of the day’s sharpest penalties has been written yet.
