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The Crown Jewel of F1 has had many great races over the years, so let's take a look at them!
The most iconic, and in many ways the most culturally significant race on the Formula One calendar, the Monaco Grand Prix at the Monte Carlo street circuit has played host to many amazing races. However, it has also had its fair share of naysayers as it can sometimes be prone to host more mundane races.
That being said, every driver would love to win this race at some point in their career. It is part of the triple crown of Motorsport along with Le Mans & the Indy 500, and with its historic significance alone, Monaco should always be a race to talk about.
Maybe Monaco isn't always the most exciting, but Monte Carlo has certainly had a fair share of intense races. As always, it will be hard to narrow down the 68-year history of the Monaco GP to just five races, but that won't stop us from trying.
#1 - 2008 - Winner: Lewis Hamilton
This was a race that was absolutely crazy from start to finish, partly due to the fact that the race was wet until about halfway through. With Felipe Massa starting on pole, and Kimi Raikkonen & Lewis Hamilton close behind him in 2nd and 3rd, the Brazilian started off the race by creating a large lead over his rivals.
However, it wasn't meant to be as David Coulthard & Sebastien Bourdais both crashed, bringing out a safety car that negated his lead. After this, Massa & Kubica exchanged the lead multiple times. However, seemingly out of nowhere, Hamilton made a charge to the front, carrying more fuel than the other two, and switching to dry tires just as the track began to dry up.
The race also saw some amazing scenes, including Sebastian Vettel taking a Toro Rosso to P5 from 18th on the grid, just another sign that the German would go on to do great things.
#2 - 1950 - Winner: Juan Manuel Fangio
The 1950 Monaco Grand Prix was literally the second ever race in Formula One history. It took place just one week after the first ever F1 race in Great Britain. As most historical races are, the scene looks almost unrecognizable compared to a modern-day race. The cars were different, the points system was different, but even all those years ago, the Monaco circuit still had its charm.
The race saw Juan Manuel Fangio take his first ever race win after claiming pole position and driving his Alfa Romeo to the finish line in front of everyone else. The Argentinean started his campaign to become a five-time world champion and one of the greatest drivers of all-time.
The race saw only seven drivers finish out of the 54 who entered and the 21 who qualified. The race saw a massive pile-up on the first lap after a wave of all things hit the track. The race also included a second place finish by future two-time champion Alberto Ascari and a 3rd place finish by Louis Chiron, who was the last Monegasque driver to score points in F1 until Charles Leclerc did so with a 6th place finish in the 2018 Azerbaijan Grand Prix.
#3 - 1988 - Winner: Alain Prost
The 1988 Monaco Grand Prix was exemplary of the great Ayrton Senna's skill and precision...up until the very end, that is, when the Brazilian legend made an uncanny error. Senna started on pole and had led every lap from the start, with the real battle going on behind him between three other legends in Alain Prost, Gerhard Berger and Nigel Mansell.
Prost trailed Berger for the first half of the race, although he eventually got his McLaren past Berger's Ferrari midway through the race. Mansell was taken off the track by Ferrari's Michele Alboreto, seemingly solidifying the race order as Senna, Prost and Berger.
Not only was Senna in the lead, but he was in the lead by around a whole minute ahead of his teammate. Even as the two traded lap times, the Frenchman couldn't make a dent in Senna's lead.
McLaren boss Ron Dennis even told Senna to slow down multiple times for the sake of the Honda engine. Senna did not heed, however, and eventually, he made a rare mistake and put his car in the wall, handing the race to Alain Prost for his fourth win at Monaco.
#4 - 2004 - Winner: Jarno Trulli
When you look down the list of Monaco Grand Prix winners, the list posts some incredible names including Michael Schumacher, Sebastian Vettel, Graham Hill, Lewis Hamilton, Mark Webber and...Jarno Trulli?
After taking his first and only pole position in Formula 1 for Renault in Monaco, the Italian driver put in an amazing drive, putting in a number of great laps to come out with the lead late into the race.
Over the course of the race, Schumacher, Fernando Alonso, Kimi Raikkonen, Mark Webber, Takuma Sato and others crashed out, leaving only 10 of the original 20 starters to finish the race.
Sato's engine exploded spectacularly quite early into the race, and Alonso famously accused Ralf Schumacher of dangerous driving after he crashed due to a failed overtake of the lapped German. Michael Schumacher also ran into trouble, crashing under the safety car after being thrown off by Juan Pablo Montoya's weaving on track.
At the end of it all, Jarno Trulli held off a ferocious Jenson Button to take his one and only win in Formula One, and what a way to take it, in the crown jewel that is the Monaco Grand Prix.
#5 - 1996 - Winner: Olivier Panis
If 10 retirees seems crazy at the 2004 Grand Prix, then the 1996 Grand Prix was something else entirely. After starting 14th on the grid behind people like Michael Schumacher, Mika Hakkinen, Damon Hill & Jacques Villeneuve, it would have taken a miracle for Olivier Panis to end up anywhere near the podium.
However, a miracle was exactly what Panis and the Ligier team got. A hail of rain right before the start of the race meant that the FIA added an extra warm-up session so that the teams could get used to the conditions. It didn't work.
After the first 30 laps, only 11 cars were left on the field, and Panis had made his way through the chaos to third. The lead changed a couple of times from here due to retirements, as Damon Hill suffered a blown engine and Jean Alesi fell prey to a suspension failure, allowing Panis to inherit the lead.
The miracle was set, and after a sum total of 18 retirements by the end of the race, the Frenchman in a French car was celebrated by the Monegasque crowd as he took a once in a lifetime victory ahead of David Coulthard & Johnny Herbert.
