Chaotic race: Sergio Perez wins in Monaco

The Mexican finished just ahead of Ferrari's Carlos Sainz and world champion Max Verstappen in the second Red Bull in a chaotic Grand Prix with two crashes and rain. Fourth on Sunday was pole sitter Charles Leclerc, whose crew botched one of his pit stops. In the World Cup standings, Verstappen leads Leclerc by nine points, Perez is third.

“Checo, you won Monaco! What a brilliant, brilliant race,” said Red Bull team boss Christian Horner via radio to his protégé in the cockpit. He grabbed a Mexican flag and cheered exuberantly: “So happy to be part of this team,” shouted the 32-year-old. “It's like a dream coming true.” The Ferrari duo was disappointed. Sainz because he missed his first ever win by a second while Leclerc struggled with his team. “We can’t do it like that,” said the Monegasque succinctly after his home race. An hour late The race started more than an hour late. It started to rain just ten minutes before the scheduled start time of 15.00 p.m., but for safety reasons it was postponed for ten minutes and then another six minutes. The narrow route is particularly risky when it rains because there are no run-off areas. After a few minutes behind the safety car, which was initially only supposed to lead the formation lap, the session was canceled due to an enormous amount of precipitation. “It’s raining like crazy,” stated Leclerc.

Sergio Perez celebrates the victory. © APA/afp / SEBASTIEN BOZON

The cars lined up in the pit lane and were covered by umbrellas and tents. At 16.05:51 p.m. the rain had stopped and the next attempt followed behind the safety car driven by birthday boy Bernd Mayländer (XNUMX). After two laps, which already counted towards the official number of laps, Leclerc led a rolling start and opened racing mode on the still soaking wet track.

As the track dried out, everyone had to find the right time to change to the optimal set of tires. The entire field set off on rain tires. At the end of the 16th lap, Perez took the Intermediate solution and managed the undercut past Leclerc, who, like Verstappen, was two laps later. Sainz, on the other hand, stayed outside longer in his rain gear and switched to dry tires without any detours. Pit breakdown at Ferrari After his second stop, Perez was just ahead of Sainz, but Leclerc had lost third place to Verstappen because Ferrari had brought him into the pits too close to Sainz. When the command came back over the radio, the Monegasse was already on the way and had to wait briefly until the Spaniard's car was dispatched. The 24-year-old reacted accordingly angrily on the team radio.

On the 28th lap, the safety car came out again after Mick Schumacher's Haas car broke in two in an accident in front of the swimming pool complex. Two laps later there was another red flag stop because more complicated work had to be done on the track boundary. Schumacher himself remained uninjured - as in Saudi Arabia, his car suffered expensive damage. Perez fights successfully After the second restart, it took almost 40 minutes for the race to exceed the maximum duration of three hours. Perez, who suffered a bald spot on a front tire due to a brake error, had to fight hard to keep Sainz behind him. In the end, both front tires deteriorated significantly, but he still maintained a lead of 1,154 seconds.

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Chaotic race: Sergio Perez wins in Monaco

Red Bull driver Sergio Perez achieved his third Formula 1 victory and his first of the season in the Principality of Monaco.

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