Montoya stalled on the grid once again, repeating the mistake from the last race — this time from a promising third-row start in Monte Carlo. Dunne had a slow getaway and left a gap open for Martins. In a hot-headed move, he T-boned Martins, who was already fully ahead, triggering a chain reaction and a major multi-car crash.
Red Flag Period
Fornaroli spotted a gap amid the chaos and slipped through into P1. Only half the grid remained on the live timing after an immediate red flag, though Mini and Miyata stayed in their cars in the runoff areas, hoping to be allowed to restart.
With several cars pushed back to the pits a lap down — and Bennet even stopping in front of the safety car despite being a lap behind — all eyes were on race control to see how many cars would be allowed to restart and in what order. After a long wait, it was confirmed that the race would restart in the original qualifying order, excluding the cars that were already officially out of the race. Bennet was permitted to unlap himself, and Fornaroli, Montoya, and Lindblad lined up in the top positions behind the safety car.
The Race is Restarted
Although only 11 cars originally made it back to the pitlane, 15 were cleared to restart. They were shown a red-and-yellow flag, warning of potentially slippery conditions, especially in Turn 1.
Montoya may have been the luckiest driver of the day — originally set to start from the back of the grid, he was now back in P2 thanks to the Lap 1 crash and the restart procedure.
Instead of laps, the time limit began ticking — a reflection of Monaco’s packed racing program. But racing didn’t last long. Yellow flags flew again after Durksen hit Maini from behind and ended up in the wall. Race control noted the collision and deployed a Virtual Safety Car.
First Pitstops
Goethe was the first to pit, dropping to the back of the running order in P14, followed by Beganovic, Megeutounif, and Bennet. The latter two encountered each other in the pit lane after a slow stop from Trident. Browning was soon called in too, threatened by an undercut from the others. Then, Beganovic crashed, prompting another VSC which quickly became a full Safety Car — unfortunately just after Fornaroli, Montoya, and Lindblad had passed the pit entry.
As a result, the top three missed their chance to pit while the rest of the field took their mandatory stops. The front-runners were visibly frustrated, as this allowed Crawford to inherit the lead for free.
Another Red Flag Strikes
With just six minutes to go, the race was red-flagged again due to significant barrier damage. Given the lack of green-flag running, questions arose about whether full points would be awarded. On top of that, both Lindblad and Megeutounif were hit with penalties for speeding in the pit lane.
Even without an official race-ending message from race control, drivers began celebrating — with Crawford, Fornaroli, and Montoya standing on the virtual podium. As they went to stand on the real one, we got another message that the results would be taken from the previous lap, the last one before a safety car. The podium positions remained unchaged, but we got a new championship leader in Browning.