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Writer's pictureJames Townley

Monaco Grand Prix race report

Problem at race start


The rain began to pour in Monaco and a few minutes before the race was planned to get underway, the race was delayed by 15 minutes.


At the time, it was believed to be the rain which delayed the race. However, post race, it has been revealed it was a power supply issue that delayed the race start.

At 15:16 Local time, the formation got under way under safety car but the track had got a lot more wet since and the race was red flagged at 15:20 local time.

Race start

At 16:05 local time, the race got under way behind the safety car. On lap 1, Latifi crashed and the other Canadian of Stroll had a right rear puncture.


On lap 3, the drivers were released with Gasly and Latifi pitting first for intermediate tyres. After 1 lap, Leclerc lead by 2.2 seconds in front of teammate Sainz.


First Pit-Stops


On lap 15, Hamilton was one of the first of the top 10 to pit for intermediate tyres and Perez followed the following lap. On lap 18, Leclerc and Verstappen pitted. Meanwhile at turn 1, Hamilton and Ocon collided which damaged the Mercedes’ front wing. (Ocon would later get a 5 second time penalty).


Sainz stayed out as he told his team he wanted to go straight to dry tyres from the full wet tyre compound. On lap 20, Albon was the first driver to pit onto dry tyres as he exited the pit lane on hard tyres.

On lap 21, Ferrari told Sainz to pit for hards but Leclerc came in as well for a double stack for Ferrari. The team had told Leclerc to pit before quickly telling him not to pit but was too late and infuriated the Monegasque driver as he would lose time and be behind his teammate.


On lap 22, Perez and Verstappen pitted and the order changed with Perez now leading out in front with Sainz behind and Verstappen completing the top 3 with only a quarter of the race distance completed. Leclerc had dropped from P1 to P4 as a result of Ferrari’s mistake.


Mick Schumacher’s scary crash


On lap 26, at the beginning of the swimming pool chicane, Mick Schumacher lost the rear of his Haas hitting the inside barrier with the front of his car, spinning the car into the outside barrier which dramatically tore the Haas car into 2 half’s as the rear of the car detached from the main part.


Luckily, Mick Schumacher was ok as many drivers questioned on the radio if the german was ok. The race was Red flagged a few laps later so the barrier could be repaired.


The other Haas of Magnussen also retired a few laps earlier with a water pressure issue.


Chequered Flag

Despite pressure on the final laps from Sainz, Sergio Perez won the Monaco Grand Prix and became the most successful Mexican driver in the history of Formula 1 as he won his third F1 race.


Sainz, Verstappe and Leclerc finished close behind the Mexican and the home man Leclerc was very disappointed over team radio at the end.








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