Perez fends off Sainz to win Monaco GP thriller

It was a long wait for the Monaco GP as rainfall delayed the start by over an hour. But once the race began, it provided a compelling case for the historic Monaco street circuit to continue being part of the F1 calendar. The race delivered a third different winner this season, with Sergio Perez keeping Carlos Sainz at bay in the closing stages to take victory.

Max Verstappen finished third to extend his championship lead, as a tactical error from Ferrari washed away Charles Leclerc’s victory chances.

• Perez wins, 1.154secs ahead of Sainz
• Verstappen on the podium
• Leclerc drops from lead to fourth

Leclerc labels Monaco GP a disaster

Given the superior pace Ferrari, and in particular Charles Leclerc, showed at Monaco all weekend, this was their race to lose. The Monegasque finished his home race for the first time in his career, but was left fuming after a confused strategy call dropped him out of victory contention.

Starting from pole, Leclerc did well to hold a safe lead in the wet conditions. While he pitted for intermediate tyres, his teammate Sainz opted to stay out and directly switch to slicks instead. When Sainz was eventually asked to pit for dry tyres, Ferrari asked Leclerc to pit too, but asked him to stay out soon after. But that call came too late and the team was forced to double stack the two, resulting in Leclerc dropping to fourth place, where he ended up finishing. His total time in the pit lane was four seconds longer than his teammate’s.

Reflecting on the race, Leclerc labeled it “a freaking disaster” and said that Ferrari “need to get better”. He added, “The win was clearly in our hands. We had the performance, we had everything. I just don’t really understand the call that I had and I need explanations for now. I couldn’t do much, I was called just before the last corner, so I couldn’t react or ask for any information, but that was clearly the wrong choice. We need to get better.”

Perez takes victory

Monaco proved to be redemption for Perez after he was asked to move over for teammate Verstappen in the Spanish GP. The overcut worked for him and he moved into the lead after pitting for slicks. Red Bull calculated the crossover time perfectly on a drying track, resulting in both cars gaining over Ferrari.

During the second red flag, brought out by Mick Schumacher’s crash, Red Bull decided to fit their cars with medium tyres, while Ferrari opted for hards. This set the stage for a thrilling finish as Perez struggled with tyre wear in the closing stages.

With 10 minutes to go, the top four were separated by just a second. There were some close calls; at one point Sainz almost read-ended Perez’ car through the hairpin. But the Red Bull driver kept his cool and held on to take his first win of the season.

"It’s a dream come true," said Perez, who also becomes the first Mexican to win the Monaco GP. "As a driver you dream of winning here. After your home race I think there is no other more special race to win. To do it and the way we did it, we made it a bit harder for us at the end. With the graining I had, to not make any mistakes, bring it home, keeping Carlos [Sainz] behind wasn’t easy. I’m for sure very, very happy.”

Verstappen extends championship lead

Verstappen appeared to be happy with his third place result. Speaking after the race, the reigning world champion admitted that he didn’t expect to extend his points lead after seeing Ferrari’s pace in qualifying.

At the time of writing this report, Ferrari has protested Perez and Verstappen’s result for appearing to cross the pitlane exit line. Stewards declined their protest today morning.

Mercedes’ George Russell was another driver who skipped straight from the wet tyres to slicks, and it paid off with a fifth place finish. He was followed by McLaren’s Lando Norris, Alpine’s Fernando Alonso and Mercedes’ Lewis Hamilton. Esteban Ocon finished ninth on track, but was handed a five-second penalty for an earlier incident with Hamilton. This dropped him to 12^th, promoting Alfa Romeo’s Valtteri Bottas and Aston Martin’s Sebastian Vettel to 9^th and 10^th, respectively.

2022 F1 drivers’ championship standings

Verstappen extends his championship lead to nine points over Leclerc. And there’s more for the Ferrari driver to worry about, since Perez’ victory sees him just six points behind Leclerc in the standings.

The next race on the calendar is the Azerbaijan GP on June 10-12.

2022 Monaco GP results