The venue of the round five was legendary Monaco, the crown jewel of the F1 calendar. Last year the race on the narrow streets of the Principality was cancelled due to the worldwide spread Covid-19 pandemic, but this year the iconic race was back on calendar. Ferrari proved very competitive in the low-speed corners, on the contrary to Mercedes. The reigning world champion team were in trouble with the front end of the car; getting the front tyres up into the optimal temperature proved a tough challenge for the Silver Arrows.
Pirelli had brought the three softest compounds to Monaco, where tyre degradation is very low. The soft compound was everyone's choice for Q2. Both Alfa Romeos drove only one warm-up lap, but many other teams opted for two warm-up laps to get the tyres up into the right temperature. It was great to see three teams fighting for the top spot. Home hero Leclerc went fastest, with Verstappen second and Bottas third. Hamilton kept struggling with his W12 and couldn't make it higher than P7 in the second session. Both McLaren and Aston Martin had mixed fortunes. Norris made it easily among the top ten, whilst teammate Ricciardo was the biggest name casualty in Q2. Vettel had the upper hand on teammate Stroll for a change, as the German proceeded in the final segment, whilst his Canadian teammate was knocked out of Q3.
Battle for pole proved dramatic. After successful Q2 Charles was hit with the fact, that he actually had a real chance to claim pole on his home streets. He was absolutely on flames and took provisional pole by two tenths of a second to Red Bull's Verstappen. Bottas made better job with his tyres than his teammate and was third fastest, with Sainz fourth and Norris fifth. AlphaTauri's Gasly was sixth and Hamilton seventh. Verstappen was setting the sectors purple on his final run, as something dramatic happened; Charles tried a little too much on his last flyer and touched the wall in Turn 16, ending up in the barrier with his Ferrari wrecked! Red flags came out, as there were 18 seconds remaining in the clock. Charles' shunt destroyed his rivals' chances to improve, so Charles did claim his maiden pole on his home soil! However, the crash was so heavy, that it could possibly lead to a gear box change and a grid penalty overnight.
On Sunday morning Ferrari announced, that there had been no need to change Charles' gear box, but everything was said to be fine. In this light the installation lap was a bitter surprise. Suddenly Charles was saying "no, no, no" on the team radio. There was a technical issue after all, which proved to be a serious one. Charles' dreams were broken, as he was unable to start to his home race! Charles' streak on his home streets sounds like a curse: retirement in F2 and two retirements in F1 both in 2018 and 2019. And this year he didn't even start!
There were differing tyre strategies on the grid. The top ten were naturally all on the soft compound. Kimi in his Alfa Romeo and Tsunoda in his AlphaTauri opted for the hard compound, whilst many others started to the race on the medium Pirellis. There was no car on pole position, as the lights turned out. Mercedes ace Bottas' acceleration was even better than that of Verstappen's, but Max knew how to keep Valtteri behind. Going into Turn 1, the Dutchman closed the line in front of Bottas, holding on to his lead. Sainz in the sister Ferrari was now stunning third. Hamilton proved unable to improve at the start, and the championship-leading Briton was stuck in the 6th place. After 13 laps not a single overtaking move had taken place, which proved overtaking being nearly a mission impossible in Monaco.
Hamilton opened the pit stop roulette on lap 29. The Briton pitted for a fresh set of hard Pirellis and rejoined the track in P8. Teammate Bottas pitted expectedly on the sequential lap. But what a catastrophe the Finn's pit stop turned out! The mechanics proved unable to detach the front right tyre, no matter how hard they tried. Bottas stood minutes in the pit box, but retirement was inevitable. What a pity for the Finn, who was extracting much more out of his W12 than what his teammate could. Bottas' retirement made Sainz jump second in the race. Norris in his nostalgic white and orange McLaren was now third. Both Red Bull and Aston Martin shone with their genius strategy, as Perez jumped fourth and Vettel fifth due to their long first stints.
Verstappen controlled the race, and the gap to Sainz was over three seconds. Norris in third was 14 seconds off the pace already. However, McLaren teammate Ricciardo was missing pace so badly, that Norris ended up lapping the Australian. Nevertheless, towards the end of the race, Norris was in trouble with his out-worn hard tyres, and the Briton reported on the team radio, that the car felt horrible to drive. This enabled Perez to hunt down the young Briton at the end of the race. Meanwhile, Hamilton pitted for the second time, as his 7th place was well secured. He rejoined the track on a fresh set of soft Pirellis, determined to fight for the fastest lap time.
With six laps to go, race leader Verstappen had increased his lead to Sainz into nine seconds. Sainz, too had his second place covered. Perez, on the other hand, was right at Norris' tail, hungry to overtake the Briton. However, Monaco offered zero possibilities for the Mexican to make a move on Norris. Invincible Verstappen drove to the chequered flag as the race winner for the first time in his F1 career. Sainz claimed his very first podium finish, which brought some comfort for the Tifosi in spite of Charles' bitter DNS. Norris neither has never been on the podium in Monaco. Perez finished fourth for Red Bull, which helped the energy drink team to take over the lead in the constructors' standings by one point to Mercedes! This was really a special turn, as Red Bull haven't had the lead since 2013! Verstappen also snatched the top spot in the drivers' standings by four points. It's going to be such an intense and exciting battle for the championship in both series! It was delightful to see both Aston Martin drivers finish in the points (Vettel 5th and Stroll 8th), as they have had quite a challenging first third of the season. Delightfully, Sebastian was also voted as the Driver of the Day. By the way, Hamilton did claim the extra point for the fastest lap time.
The battle continues in Baku, Azerbaijan in a fortnight. Hopefully the Red Team will be able to keep up their excellent pace in the land of fire. Forza Ferrari!
With passion for racing red,
Iina Huhmarniemi
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