Henry Roldán
The Monaco GP will surely be considered by many as the craziest and strangest race of this Formula 1 season so far. This, after the rain wreaked havoc not only on the strategies of the teams and drivers, but also on the organization of the race that had two starts and a delay of more than an hour.
If you missed the Monaco GP for any reason, here we tell you 5 outstanding stories that the race left us.
Sergio Pérez’s Victory Keeps Red Bull Leading in the Constructors’ Championship
The Mexican Sergio Pérez and Red Bull Racing lived a dream Sunday after winning the Monaco GP in a very complicated race. Both the driver and the team had a great strategy with the change from extreme rain tires to semi-hard and then to hard so as to be able to overtake Ferrari and thus keep the victory.
This first place represents for Pérez his third victory for life in Formula 1 (which makes him the Mexican driver with the most victories in history), and his first victory in the 2022 season. What’s more, it places him just six points behind Charles Leclerc –who’s second– in the Drivers’ Championship (110 and 116, respectively) and keeps Red Bull as leaders of the Constructors’ Championship with 235 points.
Max Verstappen Goes through Thick and Thin and Remains the Leader of the Drivers’ Championship
Despite the fact that he could not keep the prize, Max Verstappen remains the leader of the Formula 1 Drivers’ Championship by making a more-than-correct race in the Monaco GP.
Taking advantage of Ferrari’s mistakes and the good strategy of his team, Verstappen managed to go from fourth place achieved in Pole Position on Saturday to third place this Sunday. Thus, he finished on the podium alongside his teammate, Sergio Pérez, and reaching to 125 points, nine more than Charles Leclerc.
Complete Nonsense at Ferrari
What was supposed to be an easy race for Ferrari after the 1-2 achieved in Pole Position, ended up being a complete disaster for the Italian team after a bad strategy in the pits sent Charles Leclerc directly from first to fourth place.
After changing their tires two laps earlier, Ferrari sent the Frenchman back to the pits alongside Carlos Sainz. Immediately, they tried to stop him from entering when they realized the mistake, but it was way too late. Sainz went ahead of him, and Leclerc was relegated to fourth place when most of the drivers were already on hard tires, and they were practically impossible to beat.
The error cost Ferrari the annoyance of Leclerc, who had already lost the lead in the Drivers’ Championship at the Spanish GP and now moved nine points behind Verstappen. Although Sainz still finished second, this mistake could mean a lot for the team and Leclerc at the end of the season.
Fernando Alonso Continues to Show What He’s Made Of
The Spanish driver once again signed another great race after maintaining the seventh place obtained in Pole Position throughout the Monaco GP. Despite having to defend against hard attacks from Lewis Hamilton’s Mercedes-Benz throughout the race, the Alpine driver added points for the second consecutive time after finishing ninth in the Spanish GP.
Although many doubts rested on what he could do at 40 years of age, Alonso is showing why he was world champion and has already collected 10 points so far this season. Something that many did not expect would happen.
F1 Rules Subject to Criticism
It seems incredible that at this point in the competition, with so many security measures both in the cars and on the track, Formula 1 has had to finish the Monaco GP with the clock ticking and unable to complete all the scheduled laps.
Many are the criticisms that have come out in the last hours after the race started 16 minutes late with the safety car. Despite this precautionary measure, the cars had to go back to the pits because F1 considered that it was not safe to run, and they returned to the track almost an hour later.
After all this delay and Mick Schumacher’s crash on lap 30, which forced the safety car out once again, on lap 36 the Race Direction determined that it would be impossible to finish the race on the scheduled laps before the three hours as regulated, so they had to apply the 35-minute stopwatch to finish it.
