Chaos. There are no other words to describe what happened in Monaco Grand Prix, won by Perez. A crazy race, in which strategy and weather made the difference.
Sergio Perez wins. The Mexican driver is enjoying a great revenge, after what happened in Barcelona, and finished ahead of Carlos Sainz and Max Verstappen.
The delayed start
There was no shortage of surprises at all. The Grand Prix started an hour and five minutes late. Reason? There pioggia. A strong storm hit the Monte Carlo track which postponed the start of the race. At 16.05pm we finally took to the track. Leclerc holds the first position, followed by Sainz and the two Red Bulls. However, what makes the difference is the strategy. All the drivers take to the track, due to the start of the race under the safety car, on wet tyres. The track tends to dry out more and more and, for these reasons, the first pit stops arrive. Ferrari calls Leclerc to the pits; there Red Bull instead both Perez and Verstappen. Out with the wet ones and in with the intermediate ones. Sainz, on the other hand, remains outside and waits. The Spaniard waits and chooses to return to the track by fitting dry tyres. It's time to play the joker for the Maranello stable who however makes a bad mistake: recalling Leclerc at the same time. The Monegasque leaves the pits and finds himself behind the two Red Bulls.
The determining error
Completely wrong strategy for Ferrari, and a changing race. The ideal situation arises for Red Bull: Perez is first, followed by Sainz and Verstappen who is however ahead of his rival Leclerc. The race continued until lap 27, at which point Schumacher hit the wall at the swimming pools. Scary accident: the VF22 splits in two. Fortunately, the pilot was unharmed. The red flag is inevitable.
The restart
First suspension of the race. After about fifteen minutes we start again with the two Red Bulls, in first and third position, who have mounted medium tyres; the Reds instead select the hard ones. In fact, the second part of the race was also based on this choice, which however was not enough for Sainz to try to overtake Perez. The Mexican wins and brings home his first twenty-five points of the season.
Not many differences
The top ten of the Monaco Grand Prix is not that different from the starting grid. Fifth time for a great George Russell, always in the top five, who finished ahead of Lando Norris. They are followed by Alonso and Hamilton who, compared to the start, have neither gained nor lost a position. Bottas returns to the top ten and finishes in ninth position, ahead of Sebastian Vettel. Missing from the list the Alpine by Esteban Ocon who, following a 5 second penalty for a contact with Hamilton, finished in 12th place (even though he had crossed the finish line ninth in the race).
However, the weekend should be forgotten for Haas, with both Magnussen and Schumacher out.
Thus ends an incredible and crazy Monaco Grand Prix! For Formula One there is now a week's break, before returning to the track again in Baku for the weekend scheduled for June 10th to 12th!
