MONACO GRAND PRIX 2021

It's two weeks later and I can still feel the crushing, horrifying feeling of hopes being dashed before my very eyes from this Monaco grand prix. I will never forget how furious this one made me.

Ferrari finally did awesome in all the practices and was amazing in qualifying, but then Charles CRASHED in Q3, ending the session early and cutting off a few others fast laps, BUT STILL GOT POLE.

It was the weirdest feeling. On the one hand, I was absolutely thrilled Charles was on pole. It felt like 2019 again when Ferrari was fearsome. But, on the other hand, knowing he'd crashed was tough because it took some of the celebrations out of it.

There was a real threat that Sainz was going to be the Ferrari to qualify on pole and I absolutely forbade it. There was no way Sainz was getting on pole in Monaco, which is Charles's house, especially when it had been so long since Ferrari had been on pole AND since Sainz was the new teammate. I was like "Don't even think about it, Sainzy."

All night, I was worried that Charles was going to have to change his gearbox and get a penalty which would strip him from pole. But everything I saw kept insisting that he was retaining pole and no repairs would be necessary.

So THEN, the morning of the race, my phone starts blowing up.

It's my sister texting me about the home race curse and how she's never seen it this bad since that time Seb crashed at Hockenheim. At first she reported that Charles was starting from the pit lane, but then she said CHARLES WASN'T EVEN GOING TO START THE RACE AT ALL.

Monaco is ruthless to Charles. It's unbelievable. Let's count back all of Charles Leclerc's F1 Monaco Grand Prix, shall we?

2018 - At Sauber, Charles breaks went out at the chicane and he couldn't stop out of the tunnel and accidentally ran into Brendan Hartley, taking him out of the race, too.

2019 - FERRARI FORGOT to put Charles out in qualifying because they were so focused on Sebastian Vettel, so even though Charles was in the garage being like "Shouldn't I be out there?", they ignored it and ended up having him qualify 16th because they forgot about him. When he started the race, he tried to race his was up but ended up puncturing a tire and had to retire.

2020 - THERE WASN'T EVEN A MONACO RACE IN 2020

2021- Charles crashes in qualifying but gets pole, then his car can't even make it to the grid and instead of repairing the car and risking grid positions, Charles isn't even able to race at all because the problem is "impossible to repair" before the race start.

This year has GOT to be the worst Monaco for Charles because it made it even worse that there was real hope that he'd actually win this race, despite all of Ferrari's failures.

Alright. So that's what happened to Charles and it was one of the worst days ever.

BUT let's not forget the GREAT thing that also happened: Max Verstappen won his first ever Monaco grand prix!! Now he's leading the F1 title championship for the first time in his career AND I COULD NOT BE MORE PROUD OF HIM!

Also: the post race for this Monaco grand prix was total nonsense. Trashy. Serena Williams not knowing how to wave the checkered flag. People yelling down from balconies, confusion over whether the anthems or the trophy-giving was first, and most famously, David Coulthard inviting Serena Williams to interrupt Max Verstappen's post-race interview and asking her if there was any way Max could improve. It was unbelievable. Also, one good thing though, was that Charles could have gone home but he didn't. He stayed til after the race to support Carlos.

And who doesn't love Max, Carlos and Lando on the podium together?

Free Practice 1

• YAY MY FAVORITE RACE WEEKEND

• Welcome again to the famous THURSDAY practices of Monaco rather than Friday, it just makes the whole thing feel even more special

• SHOOT CHARLES HAS A TOTAL GEARBOX FAILURE BEFORE IT’S EVEN FIFTEEN MINUTES INTO THE SESSION ughhh the home race curse is back

• Max is totally blocked by Mazepin on a fast lap

• Mazepin and Latifi both have separate incidents brushing the wall but only yellow flags

• Alonso has an unusual shunt into the wall that causes him to lose his wing and a virtual safety car

• Kimi has a big lockup but takes it into the runoff area and it’s all fine

• They are being SAVAGE to a bunch of drivers in commentary right now, like they roasted Ocon and Paul said he thought Ocon was lucky to have a seat at the end of last season because Daniel crushed him so much all season and Paul says he thinks Ocon has lost that Mercedes seat forever

• Geez they really are mean to Natalie and condescending, goodness

• Sainz is majorly in the way of Max during the end laps of the session

FP2

• I just want charles to have a good home race one time without the home race curse

• Yuki has a little time in the wall which ends his session

• Ohhhh nooooo little Schu has a pretty bad slam into the wall with six minutes left in the session and it ends up bringing a red flag to clear the Haas away even though he parked it out of the way, poor thing. I am just so protective of Little Schu

• Sainz set the fastest time and then Charles came in later and beat him for the top time and I just knew he would do it, why is he so talented

• Charles waving again his Monaco fans and all the Leclerc banners is literally crushing my soul

• CHARLES END THE SESSION WITH THE TOP TIME and then Sainz in second, oh my gosh what if Ferrari could be good this weekend

Free Practice 3

• with a half hour left, Ferrari is STILL on top repeatedly which is totally unbelievable which means they actually have THREE teams in the mix for pole this weekend

• I cannot believe Ferrari actually has a chance at pole this weekend. And it actually looks like a GOOD chance at this point which is totally unbelievable

• So impressive watching Charles put down purple sectors repeatedly. Sainz too but of course mostly Charles

• Everyone talking about how Mercedes has had a terrible start to the weekend and how the quali totally dictates the Grand Prix and it could generally be Ferrari

• I need to watch quali live

• Reporting that Hamilton is legit struggling with the rear of the car and some other stuff and Bot is more comfortable THIS IS AMAZING

• Nicholas Latifi pulls a red flag just as the session was about to boil up and he went straight into the wall by the pits and TIME KEEPS GOING so we don’t have the same information to show all the comparisons

• Nico says Mercedes is certainly in real trouble at the moment especially without the practice from this red flag, what an awesome day

• Session restarted with 12 minutes to go and there’s a huge queue to get out and Max gets out first

• OH NO little Schumacher has a big crash into the wall and it has like totally destroyed his car and it is missing a back wheel entirely but he is totally safe and fine. Paul says he has no idea how they could ever get that car ready for qualifying. It really would be a HUGEEE job for 2 hours

• Also trying to rebuild Latifi’s car before qualifying but Little Schu’s is worse

• Poor little Schu apologizes in person to everyone in the garage and is obviously very disappointed with himself for allowing that to happen because he was having a really good session but poor thing

Qualifying

• EEEEK

• AW yep Little Schumacher not taking part of quali because they couldn’t fix it fast enough after his bad crash

• Kimi has a lockup in Q1 but recovers it on the recovery road

• wow so stressful before Q1 is even over

• So much track evolution

• Out in Q1: Tsunoda (yikes, Gasly is in like 6th compared to Tsunoda in the back), Alonso, Latifi, Mazepin and Schumacher who didn’t go out

• GASP there is a giant cloud hovering over the mountain and if it rains that would just be too much. They originally said 30 percent chance of rain and it rained before Practice 3 so it could happen but please no

• Charles ended Q2 at fastest!!!

• Out in Q2: Ocon, Ricciardo, Stroll, Kimi and Russell

• CHARLES GETS FASTEST LAP AND THEN CRASHES WITH 18 SECONDS LEFT AND STILL GETS POLE

• WOWWWWW

• Max in second and Bot in third for the grid

RACE

• ON THE WAY TO THE GRID CHARLES REPORTS A PROBLEM WHICH LOOKS LIKE HE IS GOING TO HAVE TO START FROM THE PIT LANE BUT THEN IT TURNED OUT IT WOULD HE IMPOSSIBLE TO FIX IN TIME TO START THE RACE SO HE DIDNT EVEN GET TO START HIS HOME GRAND PRIX AFTER HE QUALIFIED ON POLE

• THIS IS THE WORST RACE EVER AND IT HASNT EVEN STARTED YET

• I HAVE NO WORDS

• This is just worst day ever for racing

• Max keeps first after start

• Stroll flying over the curbs and getting serious air

• 33/78 BOTTAS HAS THE LONGEST STOP EVER AND THE FRONT RIGHT TIRE WONT COME OFF TO THE POINT WHERE THEY HAVE TO RETIRE HIM

• Hamilton is somehow still stuck back in 7th after all the pit stops and it’s glorious and he is on the radio freaking out and yelling at the pit wall for their decisions

• Hamilton asking on the radio where Bot is like he’s gonna use him for his advantage and turns out Bot is retired and there’s no one to do Hamilton’s race for him and I love that

• Oh gosh Daniel has been lapped, that is not what he needed this weekend when he has been lacking pace and Lando has been doing so well

• oh gosh it’s Lando that lapped Daniel wow

• It’s really nice seeing Hamilton so far back Hehehehehehehe

• With 20 laps left Sainz is gonna try and put pressure on Max in front and I’m just so done, please don’t even go there

• Stroll under investigation for failing to keep right at the pit exit, ok wut

• Turns out they don’t even penalize Stroll for that so I don’t even know

• Yikes Yuki is in the bottom five while Gasly is in 6th and now Yuki gets a black and white flag for track limits

• Charles goes into the Ferrari garage for the end of the race to cheer for Sainz in second

• MAX WINS for the first time in Monaco!! Yay!!!!!!!!!! So so so proud!

• It’s the first time Max is leading the championship!!

• There’s a bunch of Max supporters wearing all orange on boats and it’s amazing

• These Monaco post race celebrations are surprisingly an embarrassing mess, like no one is keeping it classy and people are yelling at Max from their balconies and they didn’t do the national anthems in the right order and Maxy’s girlfriend is there kissing his helmet in her mask and they keep zooming in on Charles face even though he is taking this really well and then there was a horrible thing where they brought Serena Williams into Max’s post race interview during his first podium AND win in historic Monaco, I mean, come on David Coulthard we have to do better than that

• Really sweet to see Lando and Sainz both on the podium together as friends and Carlos walked into Lando’s interview and they were being funny

• Charles is such a good sport and Martin said any other driver would be back home in their apartment disappointed by the end of the race but instead Charles was there supporting his teammate