Triumph for Perez, disastrous strategy for Leclerc and Ferrari

Sergio Perez took his first win of the season and third overall of his career. The Mexican Red Bull driver saw the checkered flag first at the Monaco GP, ahead of Carlos Sainte, Max Ferstappen and Charles Leclerc. In fact, their differences were small until the final, but Ceko withstood the pressure.

Perez and Red Bull took advantage of Ferrari’s disastrous strategy, which made the wrong tire change decision early in the race, with Leclerc changing tires twice and dropping from the lead to fourth place.

In the drivers’ standings, Ferstappen retained first place with 125 points and increased his gap to Leclerc (116). In third place is the Mexican with -3 from Monegasco. Perez became the first Central American rider to win at Monaco while catching up with Giancarlo Fisichela for a third win of his career.

Where the win was counted

Due to the rain that started in Monaco, the race started with a considerable delay. In fact, the start was made with the safety car, which left after two laps. As the track dried out, the teams had to solve the mystery of the strategy they would follow as they started on wet tyres.

Perez and Ferstappen took first place with a break, while Leclerc delayed and made a switch in the 18th round, with the Mexican taking the lead, a key point in the game. On lap 22 Ferrari tried to correct their mistake and the two drivers came together for hard tyres. Red Bull reacted with the Mexican leading and Saint, Ferstappen, Leclerc following.

After returning from the red flag due to Schumacher’s accident, Red Bull decided to switch to the medium tires while Ferrari insisted on the hard ones.

Perez maintained his lead while Saint tried to push and his team anxiously asked if the Mexican tires were damaged. The Spaniard pushed to the end, Ferstappen was also close. However, the second Red Bull driver persevered and was the first to see the checkered flag.

The phase of the game

A major accident was recorded on the 27th lap. Mick Schumacher lost control of the car and crashed violently into the crash barriers. In fact, his car was cut in half. There were concerns for the health of the German, who said he was fine and wondered why this happened to him.

First the safety car appeared on the track, on the 30th lap the judges decided on a red flag to make the necessary repairs to the barriers.

We were surprised

Sergio Perez showed how much the philosophy of this year’s cars, and the RB18 in particular, suits his driving style, and also how wrong he is with the general impression that he is the clear No. 2 in Red Bull Racing. He may not have the charisma or stability of Max Ferstappen, but the 31-year-old is now a top-class driver. Perhaps, had he been given a similar opportunity at a younger age, he would have developed claim to a title. However, he is only 6 points behind Leclerc and 16 behind Ferstappen!

Similarly, RBR showed last year’s championship had a well-tuned engine, made the right decisions and won a GP where it was well behind Ferrari. If he wins at championship opponents’ courses, how could he lose this year’s titles?

The superb George Russell and Lando Norris showed why the future is theirs (and) as they didn’t make the slightest mistake in very difficult circumstances in an unforgiving close circle. Alonso eventually got the best of Alpine, naturally enduring his experience under pressure from Hamilton and trying to help Okon cover the 5-inch penalty he received for colliding with Lewis. This puts Sebastian Vettel in the top 10, who flatters the absolutely disappointing Aston Martin.

You have disappointed us

That little moment when Ferrari panicked when they saw Perez’s times with the intermediate eraser, and Leclerc called into the pits two laps later to put him on, was the small detail that made the difference between RBR’s championship experience and the Inexperience of the Scuderia showed. Leclerc did everything right but one wrong decision cost him a win that seemed comfortable for Monegasco.

If Ferrari waited a little longer and put in Leclerc discs like they did with Carlos Saint, they would have very good hopes of 1-2 when Perez, Ferstappen came in for their second pit stop to put in the discs. In three races, Ferrari paid dearly for the lack of development of their car, the unexpected reliability problem in Spain and now a mistake in strategy. And this time it wasn’t Saint’s fault either.

Daniel Ricciardo, meanwhile, has done nothing to quash rumors that the glass of his Formula 1 career has been broken – and Friday’s crash certainly ruined his entire three days. As for Mick Schumacher, this time it didn’t seem to be his fault for his new bad accident, but a malfunction by Haas – when her cock just came off.

The driver of the race

Sergio Perez was voted driver of the day by the Formula 1 crowd. An absolutely fair choice. The Mexican worked perfectly with his team when changing the tires.

He kept his lead and didn’t lose his temper despite pressure from Saint. Despite blocking the race from resuming after the red flag, he was able to manage the middle tire in a way that didn’t cause any problems.

What follows

After Monaco and its special conditions, Formula 1 continues with another street circuit. The eighth race of the season takes place in Azerbaijan, with the battle between Ferrari and Red Bull intensifying.

Drivers and teams rest for about two weeks. The Azerbaijan GP starts on June 10th with the free trials while the race takes place on June 12th.