Max Verstappen led the Monaco Grand Prix from start to finish to win ahead of Fernando Alonso despite a sudden rain shower throwing the race into chaos.
The championship leader claimed his fourth win of the season half a minute ahead of Alonso with Alpine’s Esteban Ocon taking third. The downpour forced all drivers into the pits for intermediate or wet weather tyres in the later stages, but 18 of the 20 starters reached the chequered flag.
Pole winner Verstappen lined up on the grid on medium tyres with Alonso alongside him opting to start on the hard rubber. When the five lights disappeared from the gantry, Verstappen held the lead into Sainte Devote as Alonso tucked in behind him to retain second place. The top ten drivers all ended the first lap where they started as Sergio Perez pitted from the rear of the field to fit on the hard tyres for the rest of the race.
Verstappen began to gradually build an early gap on his faster tyres, but Alonso maintained a margin of a few seconds to the leader as the pair quickly pulled away from Ocon in third. Behind, Carlos Sainz Jnr was trying to put pressure on the Alpine driver and out-braked himself into the harbour chicane, clipping the rear of Ocon’s car and damaging the endplate of his front wing. Ocon’s car appeared undamaged and Sainz was able to continue as the endplate broke free, though he was shown a black-and-white warning flag by the stewards for the contact.
On lap 13, Alonso reported a possible puncture on his car and dropped over a second to the leader on a single lap. However, the team determined that Alonso’s tyres were showing as normal on their data and he resumed his pursuit of the leader.
Verstappen began to stretch his legs out front and pull out his margin over the Aston Martin, with his advantage growing to over 10 seconds. Verstappen eventually hit traffic with a train of cars held up behind Nyck de Vries’ AlphaTauri, allowing Alonso to close at a rate of around a second a lap on the race leader. Eventually Verstappen cleared the traffic to achieve clean air, allowing him to begin to build up the gap once more.
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By lap 50, Verstappen still had not pitted to switch from his medium tyres. But then a sudden rain shower threw the race into chaos. The middle sector became very slick very quickly, with drivers losing considerable grip and speed. Eventually some began to pit for intermediate tyres, though Aston Martin initially chose to pit for mediums on Alonso’s car. The rain increased in intensity almost immediately, forcing Alonso to return to the pits for intermediates.
Red Bull brought Verstappen in for intermediates after he touched the wall at Portier, and he rejoined with a comfortable lead over Alonso. Despite various incidents with drivers running off track, kissing the barriers or making minor contact with other rivals, not a single Safety Car or Virtual Safety Car intervention was needed.
The rain eventually eased, allowing drivers to find their rhythm again in the slippery track. Verstappen continued to pull out his margin out front over Alonso, who remained in second despite his extra stop. Ocon also held onto third place, around 10 seconds behind the Aston Martin.
Vertappen remained on his intermediate tyres over the remaining laps and took the chequered flag at the end of the 78th lap. Alonso was just under half a minute behind at the end of the race, with Ocon taking the final podium position in third. The two Mercedes of Lewis Hamilton and George Russell finished fourth and fifth, despite Russell having a five send post-race time penalty for an unsafe rejoin after he ran off track at Mirabeau in the rain, and was hit by Perez.
Charles Leclerc finished in fifth ahead of Pierre Gasly seventh and Sainz eighth in the second Ferrari. The two McLarens of Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri claimed the final points in ninth and tenth.
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