Ferrari elected not to replace the gearbox even though it seemed likely he had damaged it, and on the way to the starting grid, the driveshaft failed, and Leclerc was out. He had not finished his previous starts in the race in 2018 and 2019, as well as two races in F2. You could call that a home jinx.
Ferrari boss Mattia Binotto explained the driveshaft issue was on the other side of the car to the crash damage.
"We need to fully understand what happened," Binotto said post-race. "The gearbox has been inspected yesterday evening, it has been rebuilt and the gearbox was okay for the race. What happened is on the opposite side compared to the accident, so it may be completely unrelated to the accident. But something on which we need to carefully understand and analyse."
That analysis has now been completed with confirmation Leclerc's crash did break the driveshaft, so he caused his own demise.
There was little to analyse about the way Verstappen went about winning at Monaco for the first time, and in fact make the podium for the first time. He led from the start and apart from a brief challenge from Sainz at midway, never looked like surrendering the lead.
A few days before the race, Hamilton had suggested Verstappen might have "something to prove" in reference to what he regarded as strong-arm tactics in previous races. Asked about Hamilton's comment post-race, Verstappen had an answer.
"Well, first of all, actions speak louder than words," he said. "That's a good lesson after this weekend. You only have to talk on the track. That's what I like.
"We as a team so far have made the smallest mistakes. That's why we are ahead. So I hope we can keep that going for the rest of the season."
He was also asked how it felt to be leading the driver's championship for the first time.
"It's nice. I've never been on the podium here and then first time straight away a win, so it's a bit of redemption for all the other races there because I've never really had a lovely feeling on a Sunday here," he told Sky Sports F1.
If he was a little restrained in what he said on TV, there was no holding back on Twitter.
"Monaco!! Teamwork brought us this victory. Thank you so much to @hondaracingf1and@redbullracing for helping me win today and to everyone for the support. Over the moon with this win, but we are pushing for more. So for now, let's enjoy this great victory♯ Monaco GP."
Sainz was disappointed after qualifying because he felt had a car fast enough to snatch pole from his teammate, Leclerc, but after finishing second, he was able to accept it was a good result, even if he did admit his quest to catch and pass Verstappen may have taken too much out of his tyres.
"I did fight for it. I put Max under pressure, but unfortunately the graining on the front-left tyre didn't quite allow us to put enough pressure on him," Sainz explained.
"It's not like he is a bad driver either so I don't think it would have changed much. But, congratulations to everyone. I know it is a tough day for Ferrari, on a personal level obviously a good day compared to yesterday but I think as a team this weekend we probably deserved a bit more. I wanted to show everyone that the pace I showed yesterday in qualifying I also had in the race."
Lando Norris continued his run of top five finishes, with another podium, his third placing taking him back to third ahead of an unlucky Bottas in the championship.
"I'm super happy, more special here in Monaco," Norris said. "Pretty insane, pretty incredible, feels amazing, it is a long race I can assure you of that. You get to halfway and think 'I have to do this all again now', which is tough mentally to keep that focus."
Hamilton didn't look like he kept his mentality or his composure during the race. Perhaps he was miffed at comments his former Mercedes teammate Nico Rosberg had made during qualifying, which was to suggest, and be proven correct, that Hamilton didn't look fast enough and had to settle for seventh on the grid.
The Mercedes strategy was to undercut Norris, but he lost places instead to Sebastian Vettel and Pierre Gasly, and he voiced his displeasure on the team car radio, at the team's strategy.
"How am I still behind him, man, come on," he said to his race engineer Pete Bonnington, referring to Gasly. "What has happened guys, I've just lost two places. I don't understand guys, I saved the tyres to go longer. You made me stop before everyone."
Hamilton was still unhappy when interviewed by Sky Sports, but we have seen before that when Lewis is caught in traffic, he looks no better than any other driver.
"We underperformed as a team all weekend, from the get go, so we'll put our focus onto the next race. Congratulations to Max and his team, they did a great job."
He may as well have added his team didn't, but Mercedes boss Toto Wolff defended the team's strategy.
"It was a disaster day for Charles [Leclerc] and wasn't any better for us either," Wolff said. "We lacked pace all weekend, it's as simple as that.
"The undercut looked like the only feasible way of clearing Gasly and with the tyre arm-up, the gap he had before, the one/ one and a half seconds, was sufficient for him to stay ahead. There wasn't a mistake, the out lap was good, the pit stop was okay, but it just wasn't enough."
As for the wheel nut problem that ended Bottas' race, Wolff was mystified.
"The pit-stop failure we had is something we need to understand because we completely machined the wheel-nut."
The Mercedes team also took to Twitter, but unlike Verstappen's triumphant remarks, the Mercedes message was rather gloomy.
"Tough one to swallow. This has been one of our hardest days as a team in a very long time. We have to accept it, own the failure, learn from it and move on from here."
Driver of the race went to Vettel, who in finishing fifth for Aston Martin has silenced many of his critics who were suggesting he was finished after a poor start in the first four races, on top of a poor season last year with Ferrari. He finished ahead of teammate Lance Stroll, who was eighth, so a good team result.
Red Bull adviser Helmet Marko suggested Mercedes make mistakes when under pressure, to which Wolff responded: "At the end we see who has withstood the pressure best."
Red Bull team boss Christian Horner was a bit more circumspect than Marko with his comments.
"Mercedes had a rare off-day and it was important to convert that," he reflected.
"As a team we've done that, we leave here leading both championships for the first time in the hybrid era. Nobody's getting carried away, there's still an awfully long way to go in the championship.
"To be as close as we are at this stage is very encouraging."
Verstappen now leads Hamilton by just four points in the driver's title race, while just one point separates Red Bull from Mercedes in the constructor's race.
Baku, another street race, is next on the calendar on June 6. It is faster and more sweeping than Monaco but said to suit the Red Bull better than the Mercedes. Monaco has proved to be literally a turning point in the championship battle, which is now joined by Ferrari, for now at least.
