Red Bull’s Pérez wins wet-and-dry Monaco GP, Leclerc finally finishes home race

MANILA: Red Bull’s Sergio Pérez won his first race of 2022 by 1.1 seconds at the 2022 Formula 1 Monaco Grand Prix. Ferrari's Carlos Sainz and Perez's teammate Max Verstappen followed at P2 and P3, respectively. 

Meanwhile, Charles Leclerc dropped from pole to P4, a result of what he deemed to be a wrong strategy from his team. However, this is the first time the Ferrari driver has finished a home race in his F1 career.  

With heavy rain falling ahead of the scheduled start of the 2022 Monaco Grand Prix, race control deemed the conditions to be unsafe for racing and so delayed the race by more than an hour. All drivers switched to wet tires at this point. 

When the race finally got underway, it commenced with a rolling start on a wet track and behind the Safety Car. Track polesitter Leclerc slithered into a cautious lead ahead of Sainz, Pérez and Verstappen.

While the opening laps of the 2022 Monaco Grand Prix were nervous, the rain eventually began to recede. As the field settled into a steady rhythm and the drying track allowed drivers to pick up the pace, Leclerc ran a couple of seconds ahead of Sainz and with Pérez a similar amount of time behind the Spaniard. McLaren’s Lando Norris held fifth place ahead of Mercedes’ George Russell and the Alpine of Fernando Alonso.

With Sainz running slightly slower than his teammate, Leclerc was able to build a gap at the front, and on lap 12, the lead Ferrari was more than five seconds clear of the Spaniard. Pérez was almost seven seconds off the lead, with Verstappen 1.3 seconds behind his Mexican teammate.

On lap 14, Pérez told his team that he felt the time was right to move to intermediate tires for the drying track. Meanwhile, Alpha Tauri's Pierre Gasly rose from 17th on the grid to P12 after his early switch to the intermediate tires at the start. Sainz told the Ferrari pit that he wanted to go straight to dry tires, when the Monaco track had fully dried. 

Pérez was the first of the leaders to switch and he moved to inters at the end of lap 16. He rejoined in fifth behind Norris. Leclerc pitted at the end of lap 17, also taking intermediate tires and he was joined in the pit lane by Verstappen who made the same switch.

While this is happening Sainz took the lead, though he needed to make a pit stop. Pérez armed with fresh tires now lay in second, 3.4 seconds ahead of Leclerc.

As he had requested, Sainz moved directly to dry hard tires at the end of lap 20 and Ferrari gave Leclerc the order to do the same. But at the last moment, the Italian team’s engineers changed their minds and Leclerc was told to stay out. The decision came too late, however, and the Monegasque driver was already in the pit lane. He was switched to hard tires and was released.

As the hard tires proved difficult to warm up, Sainz and Leclerc struggled for pace the Red Bulls drew away. Red Bull then pitted its drivers in a stacked pit stop for hard tires at the end of lap 21, and Pérez and Verstappen emerged in first and third, respectively.

Behind the top four, Russell was now in fifth place, 1.3 seconds ahead of Norris, while Alonso held seventh place ahead of Hamilton. Esteban Ocon was ninth in the second Alpine, while Valtteri Bottas held 10th for Alfa Romeo ahead of Aston Martin’s Sebastian Vettel and Gasly whose progress had stalled in P12.

On lap 27 of the 2022 Monaco Grand Prix, Mick Schumacher lost control of his Haas and hit the wall in the swimming pool section. The German appeared to lose the rear of his car on a damp section in the middle of the track and he was pitched hard into the barriers. The Virtual Safety Car was initially deployed then the physical version.

With the barriers requiring repair, on lap 29 the race was red flagged and all drivers returned to the pits. During the stoppage, Red Bull switched its drivers to medium tires, though Ferrari left Sainz and Leclerc on used hard tires.

The 2022 Monaco Grand Prix resumed with another rolling start and when the safety car left the track and Pérez held his lead ahead of Sainz, with Verstappen still third ahead of Leclerc.

The Mexican settled quickly and he began to gap Sainz. By lap 43, he was 2.2 seconds ahead of the Spaniard, while Verstappen was just under two seconds further back. Leclerc, now in fourth place, was 2.4 seconds behind Verstappen, while Russell was fifth ahead of Norris, Alonso, and Hamilton.

On lap 50, the comfort zone Pérez had enjoyed began to shrink when his medium tires grained, allowing Sainz to slowly close in. By lap 54, the Mexican was just 0.7 seconds ahead of the Ferrari driver.

The final laps of the time-limited 2022 Monaco Grand Prix were intense, as Pérez tried to nurse his fading medium tires to the flag, while the three drivers behind him pushed to provoke Pérez to making any kind of mistake.

Despite heavy graining, the Mexican racer kept his composure and after 64 laps Pérez crossed the line to take his third grand prix win at the 2022 Monaco Grand Prix. Pérez is third in the championship with 110 points. 

Behind him Sainz was forced to settle for second, while Verstappen’s third place extends his championship lead over fourth-place Leclerc by a further three points. The Dutchman now has 125 points, nine points clear of Leclerc.

Russell took fifth place ahead of Norris, Alonso and Hamilton, while Bottas took ninth. The final point on offer went to Aston Martin's Sebastian Vettel. 

Photos from Formula 1

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