George Russell takes the crown at the Virtual Monaco Grand Prix

George Russell qualified second on the grid in his Williams, behind Haas driver Pietro Fittipaldi who had put in a stunning lap in the wet to take pole by almost four tenths of a second, with Racing Point’s David Schumacher in third. But when the lights went out Russell stormed off the line in his Williams to take the lead within seconds of the start, and it was a lead he would keep for the entire 39-lap race as he came home almost 40 seconds ahead of second place man Esteban Gutierrez in the Mercedes.

Monaco native Charles Leclerc completed the podium for Ferrari, the home hero beating his younger brother, and teammate, Arthur who finished fifth. Between the two Ferraris was Red Bull’s Alex Albon – winner of the Interlagos race earlier in the series – who survived a huge spin earlier in the race to fight back and take fourth from Arthur Leclerc on the final lap.

Behind Russell there was a huge midfield scrap involving Mclaren’s Lando Norris, both Leclerc brothers, Albon, Gutierrez and Nicholas Latifi in the second Williams that was so frenetic penalties were being handed out left, right and centre by the virtual stewards for drivers cutting the chicane – and further down the field Alpha Tauri’s Vitantonio Liuzzi was disqualified for picking up one too many time penalties.

But there were no such troubles for Russell who drove on serenely at the front to win by a huge margin. This is the Williams driver's second consecutive victory in the Virtual Grand Prix series after he came out on top in a thrilling wheel to wheel battle at the Virtual Spanish GP a fortnight ago.