After a tumultuous and delayed wet start to the most prestigious Formula 1 race of the calendar, Red Bull managed to perform the perfect strategy call which allowed Perez to win the Monaco Grand Prix while Verstappen outscored his title rival and rounded up the podium positions behind Sainz.
Hometown favourite Charles Leclerc only finished in fourth position behind title-leader Max Verstappen who rounded up the podium positions with Ferrari’s Carlos Sainz in between the two Bulls. This will be a bitter pill to swallow for the Monegasque driver who performed flawlessly throughout the weekend in the principality topping almost every session including scoring a convincing pole position. Sergio Perez, who was the more competitive of the Red Bull drivers throughout the weekend, has gotten back to winning ways after feeling hard-done by team-orders in Spain saw him sacrifice the leading position in favour of Verstappen despite the two drivers being on different strategies.
A delayed start to the wet Grand Prix had teams scrambling in the drenched conditions and once proceedings got underway and the rain subsided, the only entertainment that took place happened on the pit-wall with strategists looking to under or overcut their competitors in the notoriously difficult-to-overtake street circuit. With moisture evaporating from the racing line, most teams began switching to Intermediate tyres however track position proved the most crucial aspect of the race. Red Bull performed a flawless overcut which saw Sergio Perez and Max Verstappen come out on top between the Ferrari’s of Charles Leclerc and Carlos Sainz who were previously running in first and second respectively.
Further down the order, Mick Schumacher suffered a horrific accident which caused a red flag to the race. The Haas of the German driver disintegrated into two after colliding with the barriers in the waterside Piscine section of the race track. Fortunately, he suffered no injuries but the extent of the damage looks costly and is further exacerbated in an era of budget capping.
Once the race resumed, the point scoring positions didn’t change all that much with the top four finishing within 3 seconds of each other. Mercedes-AMG rookie George Russell once again proved his mettle by finishing consecutively in the top 5 once again and extending his lead against his teammate; Lewis Hamilton, who only managed to cross the line in 8th place with Lando Norris and the experienced Fernando Alonso ahead of him. The midfield battle has once again provided some enjoyable entertainment with Esteban Ocon being given a 5 second penalty for causing a collision with Hamilton, the close running order saw the Frenchman drop out of the points and into twelfth position.
Here are the rest of the results.
Despite scoring a single podium, a poor strategy call by the Scuderia saw them gamble-away a comfortable 1-2 finish in the street circuit and will undoubtedly rub salt into the wounds of Leclerc who previously suffered a DNF after reliability issues caused him to retire after amassing a comfortable lead in Spain. Red Bull have continued to further their campaign and are now 36 points ahead of the Prancing Horses with Max Verstappen extending his Championship effort over Leclerc by 3 points with a tally of 125.
