A chaotic start to the Formula 2 feature race in Monaco brought the iconic streets to a standstill on Sunday, as no fewer than eleven cars were involved in a jaw-dropping pile-up at Sainte Dévote — all within seconds of lights out.

The incident, which forced an immediate red flag and lengthy delay, unfolded at the tight first corner after pole-sitter Alex Dunne botched his getaway from the grid. Victor Martins, starting second, seized the opportunity and swept around the outside, only for Dunne to lunge back in and tag the Frenchman’s rear, sending him into a spin and triggering a chain reaction that resembled rush hour gone wrong — with carbon fibre flying in all directions.

With Monaco’s infamously narrow layout offering nowhere to run, cars stacked up behind them like dominos. Some were launched over others in slow-motion chaos that looked far worse than it thankfully was. No injuries were reported, but the scene resembled a scrapyard more than a racetrack.

“There’s a pile-up into Turn One — a huge incident!” commentator Chris McCarthy exclaimed as marshals scrambled to deal with the debris-strewn hairpin. “Our championship leader Alex Dunne is out of the race — and there’s the red flag.”

His co-commentator, Alex Brundle, didn’t mince words on who was at fault: “Martins was well ahead. That was his line. Dunne just tried to keep his nose in where there was no room.”

Only four of the eleven involved cars managed to limp back to the pits and rejoin the race after extensive clean-up efforts — a remarkable statistic even by Monaco’s dramatic standards.

Dunne, a McLaren junior, was left speechless on team radio, simply sighing, “Oh mate,” as his hopes of converting a first F2 pole into victory evaporated in less than 100 metres.

Capitalising on the chaos was American Jak Crawford, who kept his nose clean at Turn One and later executed a perfectly timed pit stop under the Safety Car. The move vaulted him from fourth to first, handing him his maiden win of the season in the most dramatic fashion imaginable.

“Oh my gosh. That was the race of my dreams,” Crawford beamed afterwards. “Avoiding the crash at the start was just the first bit… The Safety Car, the pit stop – it was the craziest thing ever. I got lucky, sure, but we had the pace too. Incredible day.”

And it wasn’t the only madness of the morning. The Porsche Supercup event also saw a multi-car crash at the very same corner, leading to another red flag — as if Monaco hadn’t already had its fill of first-lap fireworks.

With Formula 1’s main event just hours away, the stars of the grid will be hoping the opening lap doesn’t deliver more of the same — because in Monaco, the walls don’t forgive and the track rarely forgets.