50 minutes before the start of the Monaco Grand Prix, the green light was on and out headed the cars on their reconnaissance laps to the grid. While his team-mate and title rival Max Verstappen started the Monte Carlo race from pole position, Sergio Perez had to line up last after crashing out in Q1. The Mexican took way too much speed into Turn One just seven minutes into qualifying and wrecked his RB19. Sergio Perez trailed Max Verstappen by 14 points going into this weekend and was looking to limit as much damage as possible to his title ambitions.
Scuderia Ferrari man and local hero Charles Leclerc had to start today’s race from sixth after receiving a three place grid penalty for impeding Lando Norris in the tunnel during Q3: “Unfortunately, I’m used to accepting things here” said the Monegasque a few minutes before the start of the race – “A loss at the start is a difficult one to recover, but I’ll do my best.” Despite Ferrari not making Charles Leclerc aware of incoming Norris, Sky Sports F1’s Jenson Button pointed out that there is a “gentleman’s agreement” in the tunnel.
“We always had the agreement that you do not drive slowly through the tunnel” he explained. Martin Brundle agreed the grid penalty was fair, “that one yesterday they bought upon themselves.”
The sun is shining in Monte Carlo before the start of the Monaco Grand Prix, but there was a chance of a shower passing through around the time of lights out.
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Max Verstappen led the drivers away from the grid for the formation lap. There was a real split in strategy on the grid, with the front two among those to took different options. The Dutchman was on mediums, while Fernando Alonso has opted to begin on the hard compound. There were 10 drivers in total on mediums, nine on hards, and Zhou Guanyu was the only driver to being on softs. Carlos Sainz and Charles Leclerc started the race on hards.
Fernando Alonso had hoped Max Verstappen’s “inconsistent” starting would provide him with an opportunity to dislodge the pole-sitter this afternoon. Red Bull’s Verstappen denied Fernando Alonso a first pole position since 2012 with a stunning final sector to narrowly top a thrilling qualifying session at the Circuit de Monaco on Saturday.
The Spaniard got a good start but he was unable to get alongside Max Verstappen who retained the lead into Turn One. The former Ferrari driver slid through Saint Devote but he made sure Esteban Ocon couldn’t get past on the medium tyres. Carlos Sainz and Charles Leclerc also kept their fourth and sixth positions.
Sergio Perez decided to pit at the end of lap one to be able to run in clean air and therefore take advantage of the solid pace of his Red Bull RB19. Hard tyres were bolted onto the Red Bull as he tried to go to the end. He was in P18 after Zhou and Hulkenberg also came in. Max Verstappen quickly opened up a two-second gap over Fernando Alonso as we began lap five, while Nico Hulkenberg got a five-second time penalty for contact with Logan Sargeant as he made a robust overtake on lap one. Sergio Perez was lighting up the timing sheets and was more than one second quicker than the rest of the field right. He was 18th after his pit stop.
On lpa 8/78, Max Verstappen was 2.3 seconds ahead of Fernando Alonso, as the pair began to drop Esteban Ocon, who was nearly nine seconds behind the Red Bull driver. Three laps later, there were problems for Ferrari as Carlos Sainz ran into the back of Esteban Ocon’s Alpine at the Nouvelle Chicane! The Ferrari driver was getting frustrated behind the Frenchman but tried a move way too late and clipped the back of the Alpine as he went straight on. He lost his front left wing endplate but continued round onto lap 12 rather than come into the pits.
Carlos Sainz was shown the black and white flag. That was for driving standards for that contact with Esteban Ocon: another one would see him receive a penalty.
A few laps later there was a lovely move by Kevin Magnussen to provide a pure, non-DRS assisted overtake in Monaco! The Haas driver dived down the inside of Logan Sargeant at Mirabeau and then Lance Stroll and Sergio Perez got past the Williams through the final two corners. Sargaent fell from 15th to 18th in one lap.
Meanwhile Charles Leclerc was hunting down Lewis Hamilton in the fight for 5th. The Monegasque was clearly faster at this stage of the race, but the Monaco track characteristics made it impossible for Charles to attempt an overtaking move.
“I think the degradation is higher than expected,” said Carlos Sainz over the team radio as the Spaniard was told Fernando Alonso was reporting graining on the hard tyres too. The Ferrari driver was also informed there could be rain arriving in 45 minutes – which would be before the end of the race. On the other hand, Lando Norris was told rain could be arriving as soon as lap 35.
Esteban Ocon, in third, was still holding up several of the cars behind him, with the gap increasing to Max Verstappen and Fernando Alonso in front, as the Maranello team was looking for strategy options to help Carlos get in front of the Alpine car. On lap 31 there was an interesting scenario because Max Verstappen was about to lap a bunch of cars including his team-mate Perez. He was about to lose a lot of time, although Alonso needed to get through the traffic himself, while one lap later Lewis Hamilton pitted for the hard tyres and came back out in eighth but in lovely clear air to push on.
Esteban Ocon also pitted from third place and it was a slow stop for Alpine! He was stationary for 4.2 seconds. Carlos Sainz was called to the box in response at the end of the next lap – but he remained behind Esteban Ocon. And the Spaniard was very unhappy on the Ferrari team radio after staying behind Esteban Ocon through the pit stops. Ferrari told him he was boxed to stay ahead of Lewis Hamilton, but the Spaniard said “he doesn’t care about Hamilton”.
Twice Ferrari had told him to come in and then stay out before Carlos eventually stopped and he clearly fell he should have been allowed to stay out to try and get ahead of Ocon, who had been holding him up.
The helicopter shots showed rain was falling in the surrounding areas but for at this stage the track remained dry. On lap 43, Pierre Gasly was closing in on Charles Leclerc for third place. Just 1.5 seconds separated the pair. But, both drivers hadn’t pitted and would come out behind Lewis Hamilton when they did. Out in front, Verstappen was 10 seconds ahead of Fernando Alonso, who was 20 seconds in front of Charles Leclerc and looking to gap the Ferrari driver by a few more seconds, so he could come out ahead if he chosed to pit.
Charles Leclerc was next to box though, stopping for 2.2 seconds to get the medium tyres bolted on. He came back out in eighth place, 10 seconds behind Lewis Hamilton.
A few laps later, drivers were told over the radio there “may be drops of rain, Turns 6 to 8”. The track was definitely starting to get slippery as several drivers went on at the Nouvelle Chicane. Fernando Alonso was told to box by Aston Martin and they were staying on dry tyres! It was raining hard now in the middle sector and Verstappen called for intermediates, which he got as he pitted. This was chaos in Monaco. Carlos Sainz spun off at Mirabeau in the wet. It is treacherous out there at this stage. He and Charles both come into the pits for intermediate tyres. Ferrari did a neat job of double stacking for both drivers lost positions and came back in P6 and P8.
15 laps to go in Monaco and the rain was starting to ease up. George Russell asked on Mercedes team radio about inverting positions with Lewis Hamilton if Charles Leclerc closed up to him given the five-second penalty he faced. Hamilton was just over one second behind Ocon in the battle for third while Russell kept asking whether he could overtake his team-mate. Russell had a five-second time penalty remember for an unsafe re-join, but was eight seconds ahead of Charles.
Despite that huge advantage, Max Verstappen was still testing the limits of the track. He banged the wall on the entrance to the Swimming Pool section but escaped any damage. Kevin Magnussen became the second retiree of this race with three laps remaining. The Dane had also been in the wars today and joined Lance Stroll in having an early exit.
Max Verstappen therefore crossed the line to claim his fourth win of 2023. It’s a 39th win for the Dutchman at Red Bull, beating Sebastian Vettel’s team record. Fernando Alonso and Esteban Ocon completed the podium, while Charles Leclerc and Carlos Sainz had to settle for P6 and P8 in Monaco.
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