THE BIG PICTURE: Williams Team Manager, James Vowles, said it best, "We need to review the rules and regulations for Monaco, because racing like this feels wrong and I want us to be racing on performance and merit."

EVENT: This is the last year, perhaps forever, at least in the foreseeable future, that American fans will have their racing Christmas -- Monaco, Indy, Charlotte. There still may be a different F1 race the morning of the Indy 500, but it won't be the same.

TRACK: Once again, we're back to talking about the significance of the actual race at Monaco. We like Monaco. We don't want it go away, for lots of reasons, not least of which it is amazing watching these drivers thread the needle. But even Macau, a much narrower street circuit, has a long, wide open straight leading into a hard braking turn with decent passing opportunities. Something needs to be done.

QUALIFYING: Perhaps the most exciting qualifying in Monaco history, Norris gets his mojo back barely beating the hometown hero who barely beat the points leader. Verstappen can only manage fifth (before penalties). Mercedes has a hugely disappointing session.

RACE: What else is there to say. The two-stop rule didn't pan out like F1 had hoped. It was, however, a lot better than last year's everyone-change-tires-during-the-early-red-flag disaster. There was some pushing during the race and the unknown quantity of a possible SC or RF causing drama.

START: A very, very clean start (did they all watch the F2 fiasco?) as Norris gets off perfectly despite locking up in turn one as all the cars slot in cleanly.

NORRIS: As usual in Monaco, Lando won this race on Saturday. Still, he had to put in an error free race on Sunday, sometimes under extreme pressure.

PIASTRI: Conversely, Oscar lost this race on Saturday. Or, perhaps more accurately, on Friday, when his mishaps caused a slight lose in confidence.

LECLERC: Charles sure does get psyched up for his hometown race. This year, he just fell one position short.

HAMILTON: Once again, his team screwed up with poor communication during qualifying, causing an impeding penalty, costing him a top finish on Sunday.

VERSTAPPEN: They tried the only thing they could. But in the end, they could not "steal" a victory.

TSUNODA: Yuki's "tryout" is getting to the point where he's just not cutting it. Like any other Red Bull number two driver.

RACING BULLS: An excellent weekend for them.

HADJAR: And it wasn't just Isack performing, though once again he did, becoming the first rookie to start in the top five at Monaco since Lewis Hamilton in 2007.

LAWSON: As Liam also had an excellent weekend, finally scoring his first points of the season. Remember, he was just as much of a rookie at Monaco as Hadjar was.

OCON: A wonderful drive at Monaco, especially coming a year after the beginning-of-the-end-at-Alpine move on his then teammate Gasly.

WILLIAMS: They made a mockery of the two-stop rule. Can't blame them. They did what they had to do, but it sucked.

ALBON: Alex hated it so much, he bought Russell dinner as an apology.

MERCEDES: Stuck between a rock and a hard place, having to start 14th and 15th. But still, they didn't play it right at all, even trying to do the same thing Williams and Racing Bulls did.

RUSSELL: Which meant George provided the most (humorous) entertainment of the race and wild ideas on how to fix it all.

ANTONELLI: And they didn't even pit Kimi until lap 69 ... for his first stop. Which of course meant when he was done with both stops, he was going to finish dead last amongst the still running.

ALONSO: For the second race in a row, Fernando has an excellent qualifying run to sixth. Which means at Monaco, a guaranteed points scoring position. Until, Alonso luck struck again, and his engine went kaput. Still no points for him.

TV: When F1 took over the TV production from the local Monaco outfit a few years ago, it was exponentially better. This year, the new camera angles were extraordinary. Especially the bird's eye views which really provided an appreciation of how the track winds through the city.

F2: They made all the news with an 11-car pileup at the start of the feature race. The pole sitter, Alexander Dunne, who got it by 3/1000s of a second, was to blame, given a 10-place grid penalty for Spain and three penalty points. Meanwhile, American Jak Crawford, late in the race, jumped in the pits for his mandatory stop in the nick of time when he knew the safety car was going to come out, and leaped from fourth to first for the win. Indian Kush Maini went from reverse grid pole to victory in the sprint race, holding off a faster Gabriele Mini.

F3: Norwegian Martinius Stenshorne got a better start from the sprint race reverse grid second spot to grab the early lead en route to victory. For the feature race, Bulgarian Nikola Tsolov went from pole to victory (his fifth career win), but was impressive in opening up a large lead.

INDY 500: The cold track created chaos in the first 100 laps, but then things remained clean in the second half. But there was no drop off in action or excitement, as strategy, cunning, heartbreaks, and excellent driving kept everyone on the edge of their seats. Congrats to Alex Palou, the first Spaniard winner, with a well deserved addition to his outstanding Indy car resume.

WORD OF THE WEEKEND: Cruising.

STAT OF THE WEEKEND: 95 -- Yuki Tsunoda is now tied for the lead with Ukyo Katayama for most starts for a Japanese driver. Katayama debuted at the 1992 South African GP and ended his career at the 1997 European GP, driving for Larrousse, Tyrrell, and Minardi. He failed to finish in 63 of those 95 races, including a DQ. He accumulated only five points. In the 1999 24 Hours of Le Mans, Katayama took a class win and finished second overall.

HISTORICAL STAT OF THE WEEKEND: For all his greatness, and some consider the greatest, Jim Clark never won at Monaco (while his compatriot, Graham Hill, was Mr. Monaco with five wins, only finally surpassed by Ayrton Senna). Not even in a junior series, where he got pole in Formula Junior with a time faster than Juan Manual Fangio's F1 lap record set just three years earlier. But bad luck always befell Clark, in an era where reliability was always an issue.

QUOTE OF THE WEEKEND: Before every race, Pirelli issues a guide list of three or four suggested strategies. For this race, Pirelli skipped that, and simply said, "Anything can happen!"

QUOTE OF THE WEEKEND RUNNERUP: Lando Norris on his thoughts of the new F1 movie after a private screening for all the drivers, "I was brilliant in it and that was the main thing!"

SCHEDULE: Off to Barcelona where the much anticipated (and quite frankly, overhyped) flexi-wing rule change takes effect. We don't believe it's going to make much, if any, change in the pecking order.

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