Sunny Monaco welcomed the F1 caravan for round 7. The legendary and iconic Monte Carlo street circuit is the shortest circuit of the calendar, and the first Grand Prix was raced there already in 1950. Although the circuit doesn't usually offer overtaking-filled races, most drivers enjoy the element of danger, which is unique in Monaco due to the very narrow circuit with walls close everywhere.
Home hero Leclerc shone from the very first practice session on his home streets. Red Bull showed competitive pace as well, especially in the hands of Sergio Perez. Verstappen was struggling with lacking front grip. Red flag interrupted the first session, when 2:25 was remaining in the clock. AlphaTauri's Tsunoda touched the wall, which led into puncture and damaged wheel rim. The traffic jam was obvious, as the session was resumed. Not all drivers made it to the last flying lap in time. One of the failed drivers was AlphaTauri's Gasly, who missed out on the last run and was knocked out of Q2.
Charles and Perez were the fastest men on track in Q2 as well. The best of the rest was McLaren's Norris, who showed top form on the contrary to his teammate Ricciardo, who once again was eliminated from the decisive last session. The eye-catching surprise of the second session was Aston Martin's Vettel, who managed to make it among the top ten for the first time this season.
There was no stopping Charles in front of his home crowd. The Monegasque laid his hands on the provisional pole by two tenths to his teammate Carlos. Perez still had the upper hand on his teammate, who proved unable to improve his lap time on his second flyer. The end of the final session turned out dramatic. Perez was pushing hard to improve on his last attempt, but the Mexican lost control of his RB18 at the tunnel entrance and ended up into the wall. Carlos, who was on his flying lap right behind Perez, hit the brakes immediately, when he saw Perez spinning, but the gap was too small to react fast enough. Carlos ended up spinning and hitting Perez's Red Bull. The two cars blocked the way, and Verstappen, who came from the behind a moment later, had to park his RB18 at the tunnel entrance. Also Alpine's Alonso span on his last run, hitting the wall. These episodes sealed the pecking order of the drivers for Sunday's race.
Charles and Carlos locked out the front row for Ferrari, leaving Red Bull rivals Perez and Verstappen on the second row. Norris qualified fifth, with Mercedes' Russell in P6. Alonso made it P7 for Alpine, with Hamilton alongside him in the sister Mercedes. Aston Martin's Vettel and Alpine's Ocon rounded out the top ten. This was already the third consecutive pole for Charles, who hasn't started out of the front row the entire season.
The heavens opened and it was pouring with rain 15 minutes before the race start. As no running in wet conditions had been completed during the weekend, the formation lap was delayed, and all drivers were told to start on full-wet tyres. Two laps behind the safety car were completed, but the session was then red-flagged due to the heavy rain. It finally led into a 45-minute suspension, with drivers getting out of their cars and waiting in their pit garages.
Finally the rain stopped, and the race was resumed behind safety car. In spite of challenging conditions the Ferraris maintained their double lead in front of their Red Bull rivals. The track dried up lap by lap, and Hamilton pitted from P8, switching to the intermediates. A lap later Perez pitted from P3 for a similar tyre choice. Surprisingly Ferrari didn't react to Perez's pit stop, but both red-suited drivers stayed out, as did Verstappen. McLaren's Norris, however, entered the pits from P4 and dropped down to P7 when rejoining the track on a fresh set of intermediates.
On lap 18 both Leclerc and Verstappen pitted for the intermediates. Sainz was now leading the race, and thanks to Red Bull's genius undercut strategy, Perez made it ahead of home hero Charles. In terms of Sainz's team radio conversation it seemed, that the Spaniard was going to switch straight to the slicks during his pit stop.
Lap 21 saw a bizarre pit stop episode by the Red Team. Since slicks had proved to be the fastest tyre round the track, Ferrari called both their drivers in on the very same lap. Sainz came first, and Charles had to queue behind his teammate. The Monegasque was furious on the team radio. There had been a misunderstanding with the team, and right after Charles had been asked to pit, the team told him to stay out. But this call came too late, as Charles was driving on the pit lane already. Charles' anger and frustration were understandable, as race lead had just turned into P4 in front of his home crowd. Perez was now leading the race, with Sainz second and Verstappen third. What a terrible mistake from the Red Team to lose the lead!
Lap 27 saw a dramatic crash, as Schumacher lost control of his Haas at the swimming pool area, hitting the tech-pro barriers. The impact was so strong, that the car broke into two pieces. Luckily Schumacher got away from the shunt unharmed. First virtual safety car, and then safety car was deployed. Soon safety car turned into another red flag, as the tech-pro wall needed to be changed. Another suspension meant, that not all 78 laps were going to be completed in the time frame set for the race.
Once again the race was resumed behind safety car. Both Red Bull drivers had switched to the hard Pirellis, whilst their Ferrari rivals had opted to continue on the 10 laps worn hard tyres. On lap 33 the race was finally on, but the rolling restart saw no changes in terms of the top five -Perez, Sainz, Verstappen, Leclerc, Russell and Norris.
There was an intense battle with two world champions for P7. Hamilton was significantly faster than Alonso in his Alpine, but not even using DRS helped the 7-time world champion to get past the Spanish two-time world champion. The situation was quite similar in the lead as well. The time limit came into play, and during the last minutes the top four drivers were within DRS distance from each other. Not so surprisingly, no overtaking moves were seen on the narrow streets of the Municipality.
Sergio Perez crossed the finish line as the race winner, claiming his desired first win in Monaco, which was his third career win. Sainz finished the runner-up, and Verstappen completed the podium. Devastated Charles had it hard to accept, that the team had let him down. Still no success on his home streets in spite of magnificent pole position! Russell took the chequered flag in P5, with Norris 6th, Alonso 7th and Hamilton 8th. Ocon in the sister Alpine finished 9th, but due to the 5-second time penalty for colliding with Hamilton, the Frenchman was left out of points. Instead, Alfa Romeo's Bottas claimed P9 and Aston Martin's Vettel P10 respectively. Against the odds, McLaren's Norris took the extra point for the fastest lap time under his belt.
In the drivers' championship standings Max extended his lead to Charles into nine points. Thanks to his win, Perez also proved to be a serious contender in the championship battle. The Mexican is only six points down on Charles. Russell in P4 and Sainz in P5 are separated by one point only. Red Bull, on the other hand, have a 36-point lead to the Red Team in the constructors' standings. Ferrari lost a lot of points in Monaco due to their pit stop mistake. No such mistakes can be afford in Azerbaijan! Now it's time for serious reflection.
With passion for racing red,
Iina Huhmarniemi
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