In the dry and in the wet, with a procession of cars or with the uncertainty of skating on water, Max Verstappen was once again unbeatable in Monaco, where he achieved his fourth victory of the course in six races. The Dutch champion, starting from pole, gave Fernando Alonso no chance, who kept his second position from the start and was able to take a step forward: he achieved his best result this year, leaving behind four third places.
The Asturian driver had not achieved a second position in F1 for nine years, at the Hungaroring 2014, with Ferrari. Another notable progression at the gates of his home Grand Prix this coming weekend in Montmeló.
At the start, Verstappen's Red Bull seven meters ahead of Alonso's Aston Martin, one with hard tires (the Spaniard) and the other (the Dutchman) with medium ones. On the back line, Ocon and Sainz, who was up one position due to the three-place penalty for Leclerc (6th).
The traffic lights went out and nothing happened at the exit. First assault failed. Verstappen maintained first position from pole position, Alonso did not attack so as not to ruin the race early, and those behind remained in the same positions, up to 13th: Ocon, third, Sainz fourth, Hamilton fifth, Leclerc sixth, Gasly seventh, Russell eighth...
In the first turns, Verstappen began to build a soft cushion of safety that amounted to 3 seconds over Alonso on lap 10/78. Ocon was not a danger for the Asturian, more than 9 seconds away, while Sainz was approaching the Alpine and Hamilton was approaching the Ferrari. The strategy and the temptation to conserve tires were imposed.
The first mishap was suffered by Carlos Sainz, who broke the front wing on lap 11 in a collision at the chicane with Ocon when he entered something past and fell on top of the Alpine. Ferrari decided not to stop it to change the nose, due to the loss of time that a pit-stop could cause. Consequence: Hamilton and Leclerc approached him.
The uncertainty of the cloudy skies in Monaco made the teams and drivers choose to hold on and wait out the rain. Before the dance of the first stops, Verstappen accumulated 11 seconds over Alonso (v. 29), and this 17 over Ocon, who had Sainz at 2 seconds. But the margin of advantage of the Dutchman over the Spaniard was reduced when he encountered the little train of the first folded cars, so that the cushion was significantly reduced, to 5.5 seconds (v. 34). Although he was recovering with the passing of the laps up to 10 seconds.
The pit-stops were rushed from lap 32 with the stop of Hamilton. Sainz stopped on lap 34, but was unable to pass Ocon. The man from Madrid was very angry with his team for making the stop ahead of him. "I don't care about protecting myself from Hamilton, we were fighting with Ocon," Carlos lamented very angrily on the radio, also seeing that Leclerc had provisionally climbed to third position. Although the Monegasque returned to the pack when he made his stop (8th on lap 45).
The rain made an appearance from lap 52/78. At that time, Verstappen led by 13.3 seconds over Alonso and 26.7 over Russell, the three who had not stopped to change tires.
The drops encouraged overtaking attempts. Sainz went after Ocon for fourth position, with a very delicate track, slippery due to the rain, and very wet in other sectors before the tunnel. It was inevitable to change tires.
Alonso stopped to change tires (v. 55) but surprisingly he put on the medium ones. Ocon stopped for the intermediates, the logical thing. Sainz spun and lost positions, and Verstappen, suffering from side to side of the track, also called for intermediates. Alonso came back in to mount the striped tires (v. 56), Sainz also did it, like Leclerc, Hamilton and the entire grid.
After the dance of stops and with 21 laps to go (v. 57), pouring rain in Monaco, Verstappen led with 22 seconds over Alonso, who saved the double stop by losing 10 seconds, but without giving up position to Ocon, third. Hamilton, fourth, Russell, fifth, and Leclerc, sixth, did win a place. Sainz, eighth, was losing ground due to the spin suffered.
With the incessant rain and the soaked track, incidents followed one another, spinning, going off the track and hitting the walls. And Alonso pushed and pushed in the wet, and shaved 3 seconds off the Dutch leader; he got close to 16s with 18 laps to go. But he did not go further. He had a couple of scares and raised his foot, so that Verstappen regained his comfortable lead of 21-22 seconds (v. 66) to face the final stretch of the race without any further threats.
The action calmed down on the track, Alonso had second secured, with Ocon far away (16s with 11 laps to go), and in turn the Frenchman held off Hamilton, fourth, almost 2 seconds away. Sainz would be unable to progress from 8th, with no chance to catch up with Gasly.
“Max drove very well with the medium tyres, we didn't have any chance and the rain made things difficult”, admitted Alonso at the end of the race.
