It never rains but it pours in Formula 1. The bald facts of 79th edition of the Monaco Grand Prix are that Red Bull’s Sergio Perez won a race for the third time in his career after Ferrari’s botched pit stop strategy cost pole-sitter Charles Leclerc what should have been a comfortable victory.
But that tells only half the story of a chaotic, rain-affected, incident-filled marathon of a Grand Prix, which had to be called after 64 of the 77 laps because we had already exhausted the available three-hour window.
There was criticism of the long rain delays, with the initial start delayed by 16 minutes. Then the race aborted after two laps behind a safety car as the rain got heavier. There was criticism of the stewards for twice restarting using rolling starts rather than gridstarts, which are generally more action-packed. And there was criticism of Monaco itself, with the Principality in the final year of its current deal and many of the opinion that its tight, twisty confines are no longer fit for purpose. Lewis Hamilton, for instance, who started and finished eighth, was unable to pass Alpine’s Fernando Alonso despite the Spaniard at one stage lapping five seconds slower than the car in front as he saved his tyres. “Five seconds is like a F2 car,” observed Hamilton’s team principal Toto Wolff.
And that is before we even get to the fact that we did not even get a confirmed race result until 9.30 local time last night because Ferrari lodged protests against both Red Bull drivers for failing to obey pit-lane exit rules after a pitstop during the race. Altogether, it was a lot to take in.
The day had actually begun very calmly. Everyone bar the two Ferrari drivers on the front row of the grid had been praying for rain, with Monaco traditionally offering very few passing opportunities. But the irony was, when it did begin to fall, 15 minutes before lights out, it was too much for race director Eduardo Freitas who chose to delay the start, leading to lots of head-shaking from those who wanted an opportunity to move up the field.
Red Bull’s championship leader Max Verstappen, starting fourth, asked his team: “What are we waiting for?” Hamilton was also unimpressed by the stewards’ explanation that they were delaying on safety grounds, saying the rain was still light at that point. “We are Formula One drivers, so that is definitely not a good reason,” he said. “It was just drizzling a little bit at the beginning.”
When Freitas did eventually get the race going, it was in heavy rain, and there were soon rivers cascading down the track, making it too wet to even bother following the safety car around. Out came the first red flag, with the start delayed indefinitely.
The race eventually started for a second time at 4.05, over an hour after the original start time. The FIA later claimed the heavy downpour of rain had led to a power issue with the start systems, which was why it took them so long to get going. Again the restart was behind a safety car (the FIA claiming later that stewards were concerned the start systems would not be functioning properly) although that did not stop Williams’ Nicholas Latifi from crashing.
When the safety car pulled over after a couple laps, it was Red Bull who made much the better strategy calls on what was a rapidly drying track.
Third-placed Perez made the first move to intermediates, and it paid dividends as Red Bull played the overcut strategy. The Mexican took the lead, jumping Sainz and then a furious Leclerc, who was twice stopped by Ferrari, the second time right behind his Ferrari team-mate, leaving him waiting in the pits. The Monegasque came out behind Verstappen in fourth and was spitting feathers.
“Let down is not the word,” Leclerc said later. “Sometimes mistakes can happen. There has been too many mistakes today. We need to take these opportunities. It's not even from first to second, it's first to fourth.”
After a massive crash involving Mick Schumacher on lap 27 - which split his Haas car completely in two - the red flag came out again, leading to another long delay. When the race restarted for a third time, Perez just about managed to cling on as his tyres began to wear, with Sainz, Verstappen and Leclerc all following closely behind. It was a dramatic finish, although there was never any real likelihood of a pass given how difficult it is to overtake at Monaco.
That was the issue Hamilton found trying to get past Alonso, preventing him from battling with team-mate George Russell and McLaren’s Lando Norris who finished fifth and sixth - the former keeping up his record of finishing in the top five at every race this year, and the latter managing to nab the fastest lap bonus point to cap a Lazarus-like recovery after tonsillitis earlier in the week.
Wolff described the lack of racing as a “shame” but said he wanted to see Monaco’s status on the calendar preserved.
“This is such a fantastic venue,” said the Austrian. “It’s amazing to be here, but we maybe need to look at the layout to prevent a car which is five seconds slower staying ahead. I don’t know what can be done, maybe get rid of the chicane at the exit of the tunnel and make it a long straight?”
Such questions are for another day. For now, all that matter is that Perez has moved to within 15 points of team-mate Verstappen at the top of the standings in what is suddenly a very congested leaderboard.
Verstappen remained in first place in the driver standings after his podium finish, but Perez helped trim the margin to Leclerc while sitting in third. Lando Norris also added an extra point after finishing with the fastest lap of the race.
The F1 season will continue with the Azerbaijan Grand Prix on June 12.
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