Race Weekend Review
The usual first practice session that takes place on Thursday at the Monaco GP was rescheduled for Friday in 2022. The paddock was filled with chatter about the possibility of Monaco being taken off the calendar next year, along with Spa and other circuits, with the speculation of a possible 24 race season next year. The Monaco Grand Prix is known as a historical circuit and there is a divide about whether or not we should continue to race in Monte Carlo.
Focusing on the present, Leclerc was looking to outperform championship leader Max Verstappen and cut the deficit while breaking the curse at his home Grand Prix, where Leclerc had never seen the chequered flag while racing in Monaco. Sergio Perez on the other hand was aiming to show his team and everyone else on the grid just how good he was after his disappointment when team orders came into play in Spain.
Practice
In FP1 the two Ferrari’s displayed their speed around the circuit, sandwiching an impressive Perez in between them in second during the first practice. Verstappen could only manage 4th and Norris, who had skipped media duties as he was recovering from tonsillitis, put in a great performance to earn him P5. Schumacher brought out a red flag when he stopped in front of the pit exit with a gearbox issue and his teammate Magnussen had a little incident at the Swimming Pool chicane. Bottas did not set a lap time as he was dealing with a technical issue with his car.
Once again in FP2, the Ferrari’s were in control, and they were joined by Perez who was keeping up the pace. Daniel Riccardo suffered a big crash at the Swimming Pool chicane, causing major damage to his car. Russell protested on his team radio about how he was losing power in the later stages. Sebastian Vettel pulled off a nice save at the Swimming Pool chicane, almost ending up with an incident like Ricciardo. Schumacher had replaced his MGU-K due to his crash in FP1 and Ricciardo did not set at time as the team was still fixing his car from his earlier crash.
In the final practice session, we saw the same top three that we had become used to in FP1 and FP2 with Perez leading Leclerc and Sainz this time. Perez and Leclerc were battling each other for the fastest time during qualifying simulations, out doing the other each time. There was only 0.041s between the pair at the end of the session. Stroll had a brief touch with the barrier at the Swimming Pool chicane which had caused a few problems for drivers during practice sessions. Gasly and Norris also impressed with P5 and P6 respectively which Mercedes struggled slightly during the last session.
Qualifying
Could there be a more important qualifying session during the season? Possibly not. Starting positions were almost always very decisive in Monaco.
Lots of traffic and changing track conditions meant absolute chaos at the end of Q1 and with a red flag caused by Yuki Tsunoda, we saw a shock exit from his teammate Pierre Gasly who didn’t make it across the line in time to improve his lap time.. Tsunoda hit the barriers at the Nouvelle Chicane but made his way back to the pits and managed to escape Q1 after the red flag, while the likes of Albon (who very narrowly missed out on Q2 to Bottas), Gasly, Stroll, Latifi and Zhou were not so lucky.
Q2 saw a similar situation to the previous practice sessions with the Ferrari’s and Perez ahead of Verstappen and the rest. Tsunoda just missed out on Q3 in 11th place but Vettel, who had been in good for Aston Martin all weekend, snatched a place in the top 10 for Q3. Both Mercedes escaped a tense Q2; but along with Tsunoda, Bottas, Magnussen, Ricciardo and Schumacher all saw an end to their sessions.
After the first runs in Q3, Ferrari had set themselves up with a 1-2 of Leclerc and Sainz, and they seemed to be in control as Perez found himself in P3 and Verstappen in P4. Going out to improve on their times in the closing stages, everyone was pushing their hardest and this caused Perez to lose control of his car just at the edge of the tunnel, hitting the barrier, with Sainz hitting him because of noticing the yellow flags late. The session was over.
Leclerc would take another pole this season, and a consecutive pole position at his home GP. Sainz set up a front row start along side his teammate and Perez in P3 would take the second row with Verstappen, who was not able to compete with the Ferrari’s or his teammate.
A good session from Norris and Russell saw them in fifth and sixth respectively, while Alonso and Hamilton would occupy the fourth row together in seventh and eight. Alonso too, had a touch with the barrier at the end amongst all of that chaos. Finally, Vettel and Ocon took up the final two spots of the top 10, in ninth for the Aston Martin and tenth for the Alpine.
Race Report
If you thought the chaos ended in qualifying, think again. F1 saw the weather conditions change rapidly before the race start as the looming dark clouds became heavy rain. The start procedure was suspended and then a formation lap took place but the race was then red flagged because of the conditions. Just over an hour later than the initial start time, the race officially began with a rolling start behind the safety car. The drivers tried to manage their cars on track with the slippery conditions as best the could because there had been no wet weather running up until this point.
Strategy calls played the decider in the Monaco Grand Prix, which saw Red Bull essentially outdo Ferrari. Charles Leclerc finally broke the curse of his home Grand Prix but lost out on what seemed almost a sure win due to a strategy error by his team which left the Monegasque dejected after the race.
Several drivers tried to skip the intermediate tyres and go straight onto slick tyres, this was a risky move that Carlos Sainz urged his team to listen to while the strategists at Ferrari wanted to put him onto intermediates like they had done with his teammate and what Red Bull chose to do with Perez and Verstappen.
Sainz pit for hard tyres on Lap 21 and Leclerc, who had gone to pits only two laps before came in again for hard tyres as Ferrari performed a double-stack. A message to Leclerc first came in telling him to box for hard tyres but another one soon came after telling him to stay out, but this was too late as he had already followed Sainz into the pits and he lost positions he would not gain back.
Red Bull on the other hand, played their cards right. A double stack for them, saw Perez come out ahead of Sainz and Verstappen ahead of Leclerc, the Ferrari 1-2 dream disintegrating.
Elsewhere, Russell nipped Norris to P5 with his strategy of going straight onto slick tyres earning him a place, and keeping his top 5 finishing streak alive. The McLaren driver took an extra point for fastest lap due to his final stint on mediums, in the aim to hunt down Russell for P5 that he just missed out on.
Fernando Alonso took P7, ahead of Lewis Hamilton in P8; with the Spaniard holding up many drivers behind him as they became stuck in a long train behind them. Ocon, Alonso’s teammate, missed out on points, ending up 12th, because of his five second penalty due to a collision with Hamilton earlier on in the race.
Valterri Bottas and Sebastian Vettel completed the top 10, benefitting from Ocon’s penalty to earn their teams some nice points. Gasly finished 11th for AlphaTauri, a big result considering he started 17th and Monaco isn’t known to allow for much overtaking, but the Frenchman did not let that stop him as he made a few moves that took him up the grid.
Not a great weekend for Ricciardo who finished 13th, or for Stroll who finished 14th. Nicholas Latifi was P15, after Zhou and Tsunoda dropped down to P16 and P17 due to making saves and mistakes during the race.
Magnussen and Albon, alongside Schumacher were the three retirees from the race.
Mick Schumacher was involved in a crash into the barriers which left his car in two, the rear of the car apart from the other half. Schumacher was okay, but the incident did seem nasty, so undoubtedly he was left rattled. This brought out a virtual safety car on Lap 27, a safety car and then a red flag three laps later. Some drivers opted for medium tyres on the restart while other chose hard tyres to have a more comfortable finish towards the end.
A countdown then begun a couple of laps after the restart as they were approaching the two hour mark. The dropping off of the medium tyres caused some unnecessary stress for Perez and Verstappen who were closely followed by the Ferrari’s of Sainz in P2 and Leclerc in P4. There were a couple of moments where Sainz almost went into the back of Perez on the hunt for the Spaniard’s first F1 win. But Perez, held it together and saw the chequered flag, becoming the most successful Mexican driver and earning his third win in F1.
One could say this win came at the perfect time for Perez, the Mexican was delighted with the result, visibly emotional on the podium. On the contrary, Leclerc was left highly frustrated with the result as it could have been a first home Grand Prix victory for him but he missed out on the podium altogether.
Now we have a week break before another double header in Baku and Canada, two races that have always provided some great battles.
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