Not even rain late in the race could slow Oracle Red Bull Racing’s Max Verstappen’s bid for his first Monaco Grand Prix triumph.
Starting from the pole, Verstappen quickly stretched his gap to second-starting Fernando Alonso in the early going, with Verstappen going for the medium compound tire versus Alonso’s hard tire at the start.
Verstappen avoided major issues once rain began to fall. After making contact with the wall, Verstappen pit immediately to replace his medium tires for intermediates.
“It’s super nice to win here again in Monaco! It was actually quite a difficult race, we were on the medium to begin with and Fernando (Alonso) on the hard compound, so we didn’t want the first stint to be that long but we had to stay out,” Verstappen said. “The rain also made it quite complicated, we made the call for inters, the first few laps on them were incredibly slippery.
“I clipped the walls a few times again, but that’s Monaco! When you are that far in the lead, you don’t want to push that hard but also you don’t want to loose too much time. We managed to stay calm and bring it home and we scored a good amount of points for the team. I of course will celebrate this evening with my friends and family but tomorrow we focus on Spain.”
Racing around the 2.074-mile circuit on Circuit de Monaco, second-place running Alonso pit early with only a portion of the race track wet, forcing the Aston Martin driver to make an extra stop for intermediate tires.
Despite an extra stop, Alonso had enough of a gap to retain the runner-up position, the best finish for the team this season.
The final spot on the podium went to Alpine’s Esteban Ocon, who took advantage of the dicey pit cycle.
Despite struggling early, Mercedes’ new W14 race car showed major promise after seven-time F-1 champion Lewis Hamilton finished fourth, followed by teammate George Russell in fifth.
Charles Leclerc wheeled his Ferrari to a sixth-place result, exactly where he started after a three-position grid penalty from qualifying. Alpine’s Pierre Gasly and Ferrari’s Carlos Sainz followed seventh and eighth, respectively.
It was a double points finish for McLaren after Lando Norris and rookie Oscar Piastri finished ninth and tenth.
Haas F-1 had a dismal showing in Monaco, with Nico Hulkenberg finishing two laps down in 17th, while teammate Kevin Magnussen’s day ended in 19th after going behind the wall.