From the rainy Municipality of Mumbai to the sunny Principality of Monaco, we make our way to the most vintage track in the entirety of the racing calendar, a weekend so iconic that it doesn’t even try being a good race at this point. The build-up for Monaco is something to experience (and maybe all there is to experience) as drivers living 50 steps away from the track choose the long route through water to get to it anyway in their beautiful yachts and luxurious lives (carbon footprint is worth the flex I guess). We entered this weekend with as much hope as Charles had in his eyes for their performance this weekend, the only difference being Charles gained considerable hope as the weekend progressed by topping every Free practice session, making that Ferrari look like it had some real pace at last.

WHO’S YOUR DADDY?

As the clock struck ‘exciting hour’, we made it to the most awaited part of the whole weekend, if not the entire year, with 5 usual suspects in the fight with the pole, which made it go down to the wire. For once, you could find the perfect opening on a Mumbai local to get in, but not in the Monaco track to start a push lap, as the track seemed heavily congested in Q1 with 20 cars in what would normally be a narrow city street. Unlike the traffic after a sheer 4 drops of rain, the congestion on the track cleared fast as we made it to Q3 for the ultimate battle for the win (my bad, THE POLE). Piastri seemed on the back foot the entire weekend and this seemed to be an outright battle between Norris and Leclerc. Leclerc set a monster lap of a 1:10, taking the pole but not for long as Lando made a record-shattering attempt to snatch the pole off of Leclerc with a lap so exquisite that it made Zak deliver the biggest jumpscare to all of us.

We finally get our parents' disappointment in us after experiencing a Grand Prix that had so many expectations riding on it, after the mandatory 2-stop regulation. We expected the teams to find their way in the race, entering with a blank slate, but they had the answer key with them all this time- GOING 3 DAYS SLOW. Lawson kicked off the chain reaction by holding off half the grid by going extremely slow (and if his Red Bull stint has taught us anything, it’s that going slow is never a problem for Lawson). This gave a free pitstop to Hadjar, and Williams were forced to play the same hand. Unfortunately, Lawson served as a teammate to all the front players in this race as well, giving them a free window and thus the order remaining the same up front. Max played the long game by hanging out in the front until the very last lap in the hope of a safety car, but had to fold eventually to make way for the best comeback Lando could have wished for to come home to win the Monaco Grand Prix from Pole. When has that ever happened before? (Right, ALMOST ALWAYS!)

Okay! I know we are fresh off of sweet, sweet disappointment, but what lies ahead is the ultimate action that we signed up for. The thrilling battle resumes as Championship leaders now sit even closer on the points table, with the wing regulations coming in the Spanish Grand Prix, there is a very strong possibility for a shake-up in the order. Will it be McLaren dominating regardless? Will this bring other teams into play? Will this make Stake more of a competition to the other teams on the grid? Well, no to that, but participate in the Grid Master Spanish GP Contest to play in this shaken-up order and beat everyone to something unexpected and win big as you let your intuition and calculation lead you to the top!

No one could have painted the picture of what this weekend would turn out to be after a rather usual sprint with Alex Marquez taking a solid lead over his brother Marc Marquez with a gloves-off battle for the podium behind. Things were looking to have a massive twist with Quartararo’s pole for the main showdown on Sunday. The incident with Alex in turn 1 paved the way for Marc Marquez ahead of Quartararo and Bagnaia, but not for long as his crash came soon too, right after the crash between Morbidelli and Espargaro. As all of this unfolded before 3 laps of the race, it gave the Marquez brothers a chance to literally ‘RE-SPAWN’ in the race, much like the video game after red-flag restart. Quartararo stuck it on an early lead on the restart with Bezecchi, Miller and Marquez brothers behind on the hunt. The race was settling into a rhythm, but we soon cut to Quartararo’s hands raised in air, frustrated with his incident, and his race coming to an end, but opening the doors for fierce battle throughout, with Bezecchi coming out on top along with Zarco and Marc Marquez completing the podium.

If there is one race you can expect to be a banger all the way through, from first lap to the very last, it has got to be the E-prix, and consequently, it makes for some of the most unpredictable results possible. This thrilling action returns in the streets of Shanghai to make the picture of the 2025 championship even clearer. Join the Grid Master Shanghai E-prix contest as the stakes become bigger, and with it, the million-odd strategies that can come into play.  Roll the dice on your intuition, on your passion and your calculation to win against the ultimate racing fans now!!!

Struggling with the same old void now that the race weekend is over? Jump back into the Monaco weekend and relive the hottest moments by tuning-in to the Grid Master Podcast! Latest Episode now live on Youtube!

Watch now: Grid Master Podcast

MONACO BISKUT

Presenting a brand new section of your much-loved newsletter, called DID YOU KNOW? A segment where we take random, interesting, shocking facts, trivia and stories, realising how they painted the motorsport world, how we now see and love!

This weekend proved to be a big one for all of us Indians as we couldn’t help but feel the ultimate pride over Kush Maini winning the Monaco Sprint race in the Tier 2 racing event held on Saturday. Maini is an Alpine Academy driver who snatched the top spot on the Monaco podium for DAMS Lucas Oil racing team and painting the celebration with the sound of our National anthem at the most legendary circuit.