Sergio Pérez won his third Formula One victory in the rain-hit Monaco Grand Prix after holding back a late shot by Carlos Sainz.
The final laps of the race were attended by the four best drivers – Perez, Sainz, Max Verstappen and Charles Leclerc – covered for a handful of seconds with Perez under tremendous pressure from Sainz, who was looking for his first victory in the Formula One Grand Prix.
Sainz had several midfielders at the Nouvelle Chicane, but failed to stop Perez from taking his first victory since winning the Azerbaijani Grand Prix last year.
Perez took third place in the opening stages of the Grand Prix, which started an hour later than expected after it started to rain.
After the race finally began, Leclerc led his Ferrari teammate Sainz, Perez and Verstappen, who was firmly the second best Red Bull this weekend.
Perez was the first of the leaders to pull the trigger and switch from full wet to intermediate in the 16th lap, about 14 laps later than the first drivers to make the change.
Leclerc and Verstappen went on board two laps later, but both went behind Perez, while Sainz rejected his team’s initial request that he make a pit shortly after Perez.
Instead, Sainz went straight from the wet tires to the pictures three laps later, and Ferrari decided to double the Leclerc at the same time – a decision it tried to overturn too late, broadcasting on Leclerc radio when it was already heading to pitleina.
Verstappen competed for pictures one lap later and managed to jump Leclerc for third place behind Sainz and the new leader in the race Perez.
Just as the new flagship order took effect, Mick Schumacher lost control of his Haas in the swimming pool section and triggered a red flag period.
When the race resumed, the Red Bulls headed for new environments, while Ferrari took second and fourth place on used hard tires – creating this intense four-way battle in recent laps.
Perez resisted the victory over Sainz and Verstappen, who finished the podium and extended their lead in the championship by three more points with the desperate Leclerc in fourth place.
Leclerc expressed his disappointment with Ferrari’s strategy on the team’s radio, while his sad record in his homeland continues – even though he is finishing a race in Monaco for the first time in his career.
“Without words, without words, we can’t do that,” Leclerc told his team after the race.
George Russell followed Sainz in the straight to the wet slicks and he managed to overtake Lando Norris to win fifth place.
Norris, who is recovering from tonsillitis, finished sixth for McLaren ahead of Fernando Alonso (Alpine).
Lewis Hamilton spent most of the race looking at Alpine’s back. First, Esteban Ocon’s alpinist collided with Ste Devote.
Hamilton suffered damage to the wing, which his Mercedes team managed to repair during the red flag period, while Okon received a five-second penalty for causing the collision.
After the red flag, Hamilton remained behind Alonso and had to settle for eighth place ahead of Valteri Botas, who moved from 12th in the grid to ninth.
Okon’s penalty raised Botas to ninth and gave Sebastian Vettel the final point in 10th place for Aston Martin.
AlphaTauri’s Pierre Gasley was looking for 17th-place points on the grid after a very early midfield pace, but eventually came home in 12th place, behind Ocon and ahead of Daniel Ricciardo and Lance Stroll.
Along with Schumacher, the retirees were his teammate Kevin Magnussen and Alexander Albon.
Results of the competition
Position Name Car Tours Guided Total Time Fastest lap Pit stops 1 Sergio Perez Red Bull 64 44 1h56m30.265s 1m16.028s 3 25 2 Carlos Sainz Jr. Ferrari 64 3 + 1.154s 1m1s17ll Verst 1m1s17 Red Bull. + 1.491s 1m16.052s 3 15 4 Charles Leclerc Ferrari 64 0 + 2.922s 1m16.249s 3 12 5 George Russell Mercedes 64 0 + 11.968s 1m16.83s 2 10 6 pp. 4 9 7 Fernando Alonso Alpine-Reno 64 0 + 46.358s 1m15.882s 2 6 8 Lewis Hamilton Mercedes 64 0 + 50.388s 1m17.203s 3 4 9 Valteri Botas Alfa Romeo 7 15.882s 15.882s. Sebastian Vettel Aston Martin-Mercedes 64 0 + 53.536s 1m17.558s 3 1 11 Pierre Gasley AlfaTauri-Red Bull 64 0 + 54.289s 1m17.344s 3 0 12 Esteban Ocon 56.55 16.16 16 min Daniel Ricciardo McLaren-Mercedes.657 64 s 1m17.532s 2 0 14 Lance Stroll Aston Martin-Mercedes 64 0 + 1m0.802s 1m17.672s 4 0 15 Nicholas Latifi 6p.Williams-07m1 1p.07Mercedes Guanyu Zhou Alfa Romeo-Ferrari 6 3 0 +1 1m18.2s 2 0 17 Yuki Tsunoda AlphaTauri-Red Bull 63 0 +1 tour 1m15.334s 4 0 Alex Albon Williams-Mercedes 48 0 DNF 1m18.023s 4 0m18.023s 4 0 DNF Schumacher 0 DNF2 Mick. 778s 2 0 Kevin Magnussen Haas-Ferrari 24 0 DNF 1m33.754s 1 0
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