MONACO GP – Sergio Perez wins an incident filled wet-dry race ahead of the Ferrari’s
Sergio Perez has won a heavily interrupted Monaco Grand Prix after holding up the Carlos Sainz in the closing minutes of the race. The Mexican took victory by a second after taking the lead of the race shortly before the second red flag when he passed Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc at half distance.
Perez following the red flag then looked to have the race under control as he fended off the Spaniard who steadily closed the gap to the Mexican in the closing laps. The race had been delayed by an hour because of heavy rain and when it did get underway it became about improvising strategy to maximise results.
All weekend as well Perez looked to have the edge over his teammate, as Ferrari made questionable decisions on strategy which saw Leclerc lose the lead early on following the second start. Up until the race was red-flagged on lap thirty the Monacan looked on course for a win at his home race, leading by over five seconds.
Leclerc immediately began to eke out an advantage over Sainz, Perez and Verstappen behind him and was four seconds clear of Sainz after ten laps, and 5.3 ahead after sixteen, when Perez pitted for intermediate tyres. That lead was wiped out by the second red flag on lap thirty caused by Mick Schumacher.
The Haas driver crashed after losing the rear of his car on the damp through the Swimming Pool splitting his car in two, there was no chance he could have saved the car.
The red flag in hindsight according to some being too late as the race appears to continue for three laps behind the safety car. Ferrari appeared all over the pace during the pit stop as well, attempting to double stop, they initially told Leclerc to pit before telling him, too late, to “stay out”. But Red Bull responded with there stops with Leclerc being a the biggest loser.
It was appearing to be blubbing up to a final laps of fierce battle, that never materialise when Schumacher crashed.
Schumacher’s impact was at low speed but the angle he went into the barrier snapped the car in half spreading huge amounts of debris over the track, leading to a second red flag.
On the second restart, Perez rebuilt his lead after pulling away from the two Ferrari and teammate Max Verstappen. Although it wasn’t huge, the Mexican then managed to fend off Sainz’s attempts in the remaining laps although it looked as if the race could have been run to full distance that the Spaniard may have continued to close the gap and get the move done.
His lunges were not enough to get past the Mexican and take a maiden win, with his advantage of a slick-wet tyre. The pressure was ramped up by Sainz in the closing ten minutes when Perez started to struggle with damaged tyres after locking up as well as graining.
Verstappen finished the race third, almost a second and a half ahead of Charles Leclerc while he finished fourth and his home race for the first time in his career he was furious by the teams decisions on the strategy which saw him lose track position.
Leclerc said “Let down not is not the word, sometimes mistakes can happen – but there has been too many mistakes today and overall, and in these conditions you rely on what the team can see. I’ve been asked question whether wet to have slicks, and ‘yes’ but ‘not now later on’.”
Verstappen added “I did the best I could after yesterday and I think as a team we did a really good job with the strategy to get ahead of the Ferraris. As a whole team we can be very happy with the Sunday. It was a hectic one with the rain but we executed it well”
George Russell continued his consistent performance finishing fifth for Mercedes, two tenths ahead of the McLaren of Lando Norris. Russell following the restart had steadily dropped behind the leaders and built a lead over his fellow Englishman, but the McLaren driver attempted to come back at Russell.
Russell finished a lonely fifth having been steadily dropped by the leaders in the laps after the second rolling start, with Norris pitting during the chase to the flag as he had enough of a gap behind thanks to Alonso’s slow pace, but remaining sixth for McLaren.
Norris meanwhile had lost out to Russell partly due to McLaren taking more out of the tyres and the Mercedes being able to was able to go a few laps longer into the race before switching to the slicks.
Fernando Alonso played his role in holding up not only Norris which prevented the attack on Russell but serval drivers including Lewis Hamilton and Alpine teammate Esteban Ocon. That lead to the Frenchman earning a five second time penalty for running into the back of Hamilton, dropping him to twelfth.
Ocon’s penalty promoted Valtteri Bottas to ninth finishing a second ahead of Sebastian Vettel in tenth. Pierre Gasly managed to come through the field after a shock Q1 elimination to finish eleventh, the Alpha Tauri driver took a different strategy to rise through the pack on inters and finish twelfth.
Pressure will continue to grow on Daniel Ricciardo, the three time Monaco winner was only thirteenth, finishing two seconds ahead of Ocon, when his penalty was applied. Lance Stroll was the final car on the lead lap a minute behind Perez fourteenth.
While Guanyu Zhou, Yuki Tsunoda and Nicolas Latifi finished the race a lap down.
Related
- Monaco GP – Qualifying Result
- MONACO GP – Charles Leclerc Takes Pole As Carlos Sainz And Sergio Perez Make The Same Error And Crash At Portier In Dying Moments Of Q3
- MONACO GP – Charles Leclerc Continues To Set The Pace In FP2 Going Four Thousandths Faster Than Teammate Carlos Sainz
- MONACO GP – Charles Leclerc four hundredths ahead of Sergio Perez in first practice
- F1 Today – Monaco Prixview – 26/05/2022
- PRIXVIEW – Monaco Grand Prix