Monaco Race Reaction
Image: Red Bull Racing Media
This year’s Monaco Grand Prix was one to remember. Whilst most races at Monaco are predictable and are extremely underwhelming, Sunday’s race was anything but boring.
With six races under our belt, excluding Imola, here’s what happened in the most exciting race of this season so far.
Victorious Verstappen
Max Verstappen won his second Monaco Grand Prix last week, with nearly 30 seconds separating him and second-place-finisher Fernando Alonso. This may seem like business as usual but there was potential for an entirely different outcome.
Verstappen’s win was arguably the result of a sensational pole lap on Saturday denying Fernando Alonso his first pole in over a decade. Verstappen came alive in the early stages, with only Alonso contesting him for the win.
The real challenge came when Verstappen’s tyres seemed to be suffering from severe degradation whilst Alonso managed his tyres much better and closed the gap to Verstappen as the Dutchman started to encounter backmarkers, hindering his process.
Despite the late threat of rain forcing Red Bull to pit, Verstappen managed to keep his Red Bull out of the barriers and went on to take the win.
With Verstappen claiming his 39th win on the streets of Monaco, he’s only two wins behind Ayrton Senna’s record, an impressive feat for a driver who is yet to turn 26.
Oc-on the podium
Image: Alpine F1 Media/FOM
Arguably the most impressive performance of the week came from outside of the usual top teams. Although Alpine have been recovering from a sub-par start to the 2023 season, many did not expect Esteban Ocon to deliver an amazing lap time during the chaotic qualifying on Saturday and drove a great race to pick up a third career podium.
Defending from Carlos Sainz, who made contact with Ocon’s rear at the Nouvelle Chicane, the Alpine driver showed fantastic pace and delivered a podium when it mattered.
This performance comes at a pivotal time in Alpine’s development as, in an interview with Canal+, Alpine CEO Laurent Rossi commented: "The trajectory is not good. We need to fix the mindset of the team ASAP."
A matter of weeks later, Esteban Ocon’s podium serves a stark reminder that, much like Aston Martin, Alpine aims to win races in the near future.
The result marks the first podium for the Enstone-based team at Monaco since Robert Kubica’s third place finish in 2010.
El Plan postponed?
Going into the Monaco race weekend, the race seemed like Fernando Alonso’s best chance to win a race. This is thanks to Monaco’s slow speed corners and lack of long straights, something which plays to Aston Martin’s strengths as its cars lack the pace on straights.
Verstappen snatched pole position from Alonso on Saturday by just 84 milliseconds which encouraged Alonso, even more, to get the win on Sunday.
Image: Aston Martin F1 Media
Alonso had a great start but lacked the grip to get ahead as he started on the hard-compound tyres. Alonso continued to keep tabs on Verstappen for the majority of the race. It was only when it started to rain that Alonso’s race began to fall apart. When other drivers were pitting to fit intermediate tyres due to slippery conditions, Aston Martin pitted Alonso for slick tyres, which confused viewers as the track was unsuitable for dry-weather tyres.
Had Alonso pitted for intermediates, the Spaniard would have been in a prime position to win his 33rd race. Alonso was forced to pit again for intermediates and, as a result, was nearly a pit stop behind Verstappen.
Whilst Monaco was possibly Aston Martin’s best chance at winning a race, Alonso remains confident that the Silverstone-based team has the momentum to challenge for wins at other slow-speed tracks in Hungary and Singapore. Alonso’s second-place finish at Monaco was Aston Martin’s best finish of the season and continues to display Alonso’s upwards trajectory.
A race to forget for Ferrari
Carlos Sainz had a dismal race as he initially challenged Esteban Ocon for a potential podium. He ran into the back of Ocon in the early stages of the race, damaging his front wing endplate. However, the damage did not seem to affect the Ferrari’s performance and continued to pressure Ocon for P3.
Despite a slow stop from Alpine, Ferrari’s strategy was ineffective in getting Sainz ahead of Ocon. Sainz felt he had a lot more pace in his tyres and was livid over his team’s decision.
“What the f***! This is exactly what I talked about," said Sainz in a radio message. His race engineer explained that the aim of the pitstop was to cover Hamilton who was running behind the Spaniard.
“I don’t care about Hamilton, I was quick.”
A frustrated Carlos Sainz came home in P8, when a potential podium was on the cards.
In his home race, Charles Leclerc received a three-place grid penalty after impeding Lando Norris in the final phase of qualifying. Already off to a bad start, Leclerc struggled to make inroads to move further up the field and ended up finishing in sixth.
Meanwhile, rivals Mercedes used the treacherous conditions to its advantage with both Lewis Hamilton and George Russell leapfrogging the two Ferraris, finishing P4 and P5 despite a five-second penalty for Russell. Mercedes are currently 29 points ahead of Ferrari in the constructor’s standings and is only one point behind Aston Martin in second.
Clearly, this race, like the last few outings in Monaco, was a race to forget for Ferrari.
Absolute chaos in the Principality
Among the other crashes, spins, and lock-ups during the race, this year’s Monaco Grand Prix saw a lot of mistakes from many drivers. Surprisingly, there were no red flags or safety cars on a track where the drivers are less than a few inches from the barriers.
Starting from P14, Lance Stroll made contact with the rear of both Haas cars, as the Canadian struggled to make progress for a large portion of the race. Stroll’s race weekend went from bad to worse as he locked up at the hairpin and went straight on into the barrier, eventually retiring from the race.
Many drivers including Stroll, Russell, and Sainz locked up and went into the run-off area at Mirebeau as a result of the quickly developing wet conditions.
Red Bull driver Sergio Perez failed to make the progress that he intended to. The Mexican driver is now only twelve points ahead of third-place Fernando Alonso in the driver’s championship, with a sizeable 39-point deficit to teammate Max Verstappen.
All in all, this was quite possibly the most thrilling Monaco Grand Prix we’ve seen in over a decade. Let’s hope the next few races are just as good.
Here’s the final race classification:
1 - Max Verstappen (NED)
2 - Fernando Alonso (ESP)
3 - Esteban Ocon (FRA)
4 - Lewis Hamilton (GBR)
5 - George Russell (GBR)
6 - Charles Leclerc (MCO)
7 - Pierre Gasly (FRA)
8 - Carlos Sainz (ESP)
9 - Lando Norris (GBR)
10 - Oscar Piastri (AUS)
11 - Valtteri Bottas (FIN)
12 - Nyck De Vries (NED)
13 - Zhou Guanyu (CHN)
14 - Alexander Albon (THA)
15 - Yuki Tsunonda (JPN)
16 - Sergio Perez (MEX)
17 - Nico Hulkenberg (GER)
18 - Logan Sargeant (USA)
DNF - Kevin Magnussen (DNK)
DNF - Lance Stroll (CAN)
