A frustrated Hamilton, Leclerc’s lost race, Ricciardo close to ejection: What did the Monaco Grand Prix show?

The Monaco Grand Prix brought many things. Charles Leclerc had to cope with a very bitter end to the race, Sergio Pérez became the best Mexican F1 driver ever and the chair swings significantly under Daniel Ricciardo…

Sergio Pérez

For Pérez, it was the third win of his F1 career, and at a circuit where everyone wants to win. The Red Bull driver also became the best Mexican Formula 1 driver ever, and he put in a great performance all weekend.

The victory in the Monaco Grand Prix is well deserved. In addition, Pérez beat his teammate and reigning world champion Max Verstappen in all practice sessions, qualifying and finally in the race.

Pérez was thus closer to Leclerc, who finished fourth in the drivers’ championship despite his starting position (pole position).

Pérez’s victory was not altered by Ferrari’s protest against the two Red Bull drivers, who crossed the yellow line with their left wheels on the exit of the pits on lap 23, although not at full volume according to the sports commissioners.

Breaking the curse, but ultimately with a bitter end

Charles Leclerc finally broke his curse by finishing the Monaco Grand Prix in fourth place, finally managing to finish his home race.

The 24-year-old Monegasque, however, started from pole position and it’s safe to say that he had the situation firmly in his hands throughout the weekend. It was Leclerc’s third pole position in a row at Monaco, but Leclerc has not dominated any of the last three races.

In the end, he had to face a bitter end in Monaco as well, due to yet another miscommunication by the Italian stable and a pit stop error. Ferrari first decided to call Leclerc into the pits for a tyre change in the intermediate conditions.

And a few laps later Leclerc stopped again, this time changing to dry tyres, specifically the hardest compound marked in white. Ferrari made a double pit-stop at that point, calling Carlos Sainz into the pits first.

Leclerc lost valuable time and fell behind his teammate. A lap later, both Red Bull drivers pitted, and as a result of the lost time and a bad pit stop, Pérez was not only ahead of Leclerc, but also ahead of Sainz.

The order at the front of the Monaco Grand Prix was thus shuffled, with Pérez taking the lead, Sainz second, Verstappen third and only Leclerc fourth at that point. Although the fans watched a tough battle for victory in the final minutes of the race, the order remained unchanged until the end of the race.

A frustrated Hamilton

Hamilton started the race from eighth position and crossed the line in the same position. However, the seven-time world champion complained after the race that he had been stuck behind the Alpine for virtually the entire race.

First it was Esteban Ocon, who fought hard against the much faster Hamilton. He dropped behind Ocon after a pit stop, and then made contact with each other in the Sainte Devote section.

Hamilton moved to the inside of the corner while Ocon took up a defensive line. This subsequently meant Ocon’s rear wheel collided with Lewis Hamilton’s front wing. The subsequent collision was investigated by the sports commissioners, whereupon the Alpine driver received a five-second penalty for the racing incident.

In the final classification, this meant that Ocon lost the ninth place he had scored and dropped to twelfth. However, after the twenty-five-year-old French driver also decided to head to his mechanics, Hamilton found himself behind the second car of the Alpine stable – Fernando Alonso.

And Hamilton didn’t overtake him until the end of the race. After the race, the Mercedes driver admitted that he was very frustrated with the Monaco Grand Prix.

Mick Schumacher’s big crash or another financial burden for Haas

After a very promising start to the season, Haas falls into a classic depression. Neither of its drivers finished the Monaco Grand Prix, and Schumacher wrecked his car on lap 27.

According to F1, Kevin Magnussen had problems with his power unit and the team opted to retire the car. Moreover, Haas boss Guenther Steiner was not surprised after Schumacher’s crash.

It should be noted that the son of the famous legend has so far failed to record any significant results. Moreover, based on the observation of non-verbal communication, it is obvious that Haas is not in the best financial situation and Schumacher’s accidents are not exactly helping the American stable.

This also interferes with the thorny issue of budget ceilings. Teams are currently trying to save money wherever they can – so Schumacher is not only not scoring points, but his accidents are making it very difficult for the team financially. Red Bull boss Christian Horner even said recently that with the current caps, most teams won’t even finish the season.

Sebastian Vettel outside the top 5 for the first time in Monaco

Since the start of Vettel’s F1 career, he has never finished outside the top five at Monaco, apart from 2009 and 2014, when Vettel retired from the race.

In 2008 and 2015, Vettel finished fifth, with two fourth-place finishes in Monaco in 2012 and 2016. Vettel captured five second places in the 2010, 2013, 2015, 2018 and 2019 seasons. The thirty-four-year-old German driver also won twice in Monaco (2011, 2017).

This year, he finished tenth in Monaco thanks to Ocon’s penalty.

Lando Norris – fastest lap of the race

Despite the Spanish Grand Prix, where Norris suffered from major problems with angina, the McLaren driver looked much better in Monaco. Despite not being 100% fit for the seventh race of the season, his pace across the weekend was impressive.

Norris qualified for the Monaco Grand Prix in fifth place for the second year running, and finished this year’s race in sixth, with George Russell in a Mercedes overtaking him in the race.

The talented British driver even set the fastest lap of the race this year at 1:14.693. With his sixth place and one extra championship point for fastest lap, Norris now has 48 points in the Drivers’ Championship.

Another tragic performance by Daniel Ricciardo

McLaren is running out of patience. And so are its fans. Although many would have expected Ricciardo to see some improvement this year, it is quite the opposite. And you can’t keep making excuses for a bad monopoly forever.

Aside from last year’s win at Monza in Italy and a few other races, Ricciardo has struggled mightily and hasn’t caught on.

The British stable boss Zak Brown even reminded before the Monaco Grand Prix that Ricciardo has an early termination clause in his contract in case of prolonged unsatisfactory performances.

In the drivers’ championship, the thirty-two-year-old Australian has just eleven points, a truly dismal feat considering what Norris can get out of this year’s McLaren.

If Ricciardo doesn’t improve his performance in the coming races, and consequently if McLaren don’t figure out the reason for the disastrous results, it may well mean that Ricciardo will lose his seat later this season.

F1, Motorsport