Perez wins wet/dry Monaco Grand Prix as Leclerc only takes fourth

Red Bull Racing’s Sergio Perez scored his third career victory by winning the most iconic Formula 1 race on the calendar, the Monaco Grand Prix. Checo finished just 1.1 seconds ahead of Carlos Sainz and Max Verstappen. As for Charles Leclerc, the strategy by Ferrari went wrong and he lost track position from pole to P4.

Max Verstappen extended his championship lead over Charles Leclerc with third position ahead of the home hero, who had dominated the early stages that followed a long delay due to a rain storm soaking the Principality.

Rain began to fall just before the scheduled start time, which was pushed back initially by nine minutes before this was extended to 16 minutes with a safety car formation lap mandated – on safety grounds per the FIA because there had been no prior running in the wet this weekend – and in that gap the deluge intensified.

The cars were sent out for two formation laps behind the safety car, with proceedings stopped at the end of the second as the rain was falling to such an extent huge areas of standing water formed, with rivers running around the Rascasse as the field passed by, heading for the pits.

The cars remained there for nearly 50 minutes before they were sent out for a second safety car formation lap procedure, which meant all the cars had to be fitted with extreme wet tyres.

After two laps behind the safety car – taking the first two from the new race distance of 77 and during which Lance Stroll clipped the barrier at Massenet and picked up a right-rear puncture and his fellow Canadian Nicholas Latifi crashed at low speed at the hairpin, damaging his front wing – racing began with a rolling start at the end of lap three.

Leclerc led the charge ahead of Sainz, Perez and Verstappen – his Ferrari squirming around as he applied full power for the first time down the pit straight, but staying in the right direction as the Monegasque led the field into Ste Devote.

They made it through unscathed but spread out, many drivers getting very sideways coming out of Casino Square as Leclerc edged to a 1.8 seconds lead by the end of the first racing tour as the Ferrari drivers fired their tyres up quicker than the chasing Red Bull duo behind.

Leclerc soon pulled clear of Sainz – the Ferrari drivers quicker at different points of the track, with the leader regularly pulling a second clear through sector one before Sainz stole a few tenths back in the second and third segments as they worked their way down the one minute, 30 seconds laptime brackets (the first racing lap was a one minute, 43.218 seconds for Leclerc).

By lap 15 Leclerc led by five seconds, with the leaders discussing with their teams whether to switch to intermediates as Pierre Gasly, Stroll and Latifi had done ahead of the rolling start.

Sainz insisted staying out and going straight to slicks was the best option for Ferrari, but its hand was forced when Perez, who had been advocating for inters, took them at the end of lap 16.

His pace was so strong on that compound that when Ferrari brought Leclerc in on lap 18, with Verstappen doing likewise and both taking inters, Perez vaulted ahead and quickly chased after Sainz.

The Spaniard led until lap 21, by which time Perez was only a few seconds behind despite having already stopped and indeed as Sainz completed a slippery out-lap, Red Bull brought Perez and Verstappen.

As they exited the pits on lap 23, Verstappen appearing to get very close to the pitlane exit line if not go over it, Perez had leapfrogged Sainz to lead, with Verstappen slotting into third just behind and Leclerc fourth.

The former dominant leader had been brought in for a second time a few seconds behind Sainz, Ferrari giving him confusing radio messages about whether or not to come in and double-stack.

Now all the leaders ran hard slicks, but this time the Red Bulls appeared to get better tyre warm-up – Sainz even nearly dropping his car as he ran closely behind Perez at the end of lap 23.

Just as Perez was starting to keep the lead he had gained while Sainz was saving his sideways moment, and then defending from Verstappen and the frustrated Leclerc behind, the race was interrupted again.

Mick Schumacher had been the first driver to take hards on lap 18 and as he battled Alfa Romeo’s Zhou Guanyu, he dropped his Haas running between the two Swimming Pool chicanes.

The impact was not at massively high speed, but the angles and forces involved snapped Schumacher’s car in half and as a result of needing to repair the barrier and clear away a large amount of wreckage the red flags came out again after the incident had first been covered by a virtual and then full safety car.

After a stoppage of 20 minutes, Perez led the pack back out for another rolling start after two more tours behind the safety car – the order behind Sainz, Verstappen, Leclerc, George Russell and Lando Norris, who had lost out to his fellow Briton by taking inters for a few laps and the Mercedes stayed out on full wets for a few more laps before going straight to slicks.

At the restart on lap 33, with the Ferraris on the same set of hards they had been running before the stoppage and Perez and Verstappen switched to new mediums, Perez was unchallenged into Ste Devote.

He did lock up heavily approaching Mirabeau, but still built a lead of nearly a second as the pack returned to racing speed in the one minute, 23 seconds.

A few laps later they were down to the one minute, 18 seconds, with the Ferrari cars not dropping back with slow tyre warm-up despite being on a used harder compound.

But after they leaders exchanged fastest laps between the four cars over the next phase of the race, DRS now switched on and the pace reaching the one minute, 16 seconds, Perez began to edge clear and Leclerc, unable to stay in the 1m16s, lost contact with Verstappen in fourth.

By lap 45 Perez’s lead was 2.2 seconds over Sainz and his main concern became catching the rear of the field to lap the backmarkers – a long snake having formed behind Fernando Alonso, who had dropped back from Norris while leading Lewis Hamilton and Esteban Ocon.

But ten laps later, Ferrari’s hoped for Perez’s tyres to grain and wear finally arrived and the leader dropped back to the 1m18s bracket, which meant Sainz quickly erased his lead and closed in to under second, with Verstappen doing likewise and Leclerc also able to reverse his earlier losses.

Ferrari urged Sainz to pressure Perez as the leaders did catch traffic – Verstappen behind not struggling as much keeping his mediums alive to the finish, which by this point was the two-hour time limit after the repeated delays.

A final 10-minute chase ensued, with Sainz initially threatening to make a move into the chicane, but got closest, and twice nearly ran into the back of Perez, at the hairpin.

But a bold move for the lead never came, with Verstappen also not attempting a risky pass on Sainz and Leclerc kept at bay in fourth as a tense stalemate played out.

Perez completed 64 laps and finished with a final margin of 1.1 seconds, Sainz just 0.3 seconds clear of Verstappen and the top four covered by just 2.9 seconds.

Russell finished a lonely fifth having been steadily dropped by the leaders in the laps after the second rolling start, with Norris pitting during the chase to the flag as he had enough of a gap behind thanks to Alonso’s slow pace, but remaining sixth for McLaren.

Alonso did lift his laptimes as the finished approached and he finished 4.0 seconds clear of Hamilton, who had battled with Esteban Ocon ahead of the second red flag.

The pair clashed into Turn 1 at one stage, for which Ocon was given a five-second time addition that dropped him out of the points from ninth on the road behind Hamilton at the finish.

That promoted Valtteri Bottas to ninth, Sebastian Vettel to the final point in P10 (full points were awarded as over 75% of the set distance was completed) and Gasly P11, the AlphaTauri driver rising through the field on his inters during the laps before the Sainz and Russell stayed out to go straight to slicks.

Two other cars failed to finish: Alex Albon who stopped in the pits ahead of the closing stages and Kevin Magnussen who retired due to a water pressure loss just before Schumacher’s crash.

So congratulations to Sergio Perez in winning the Monaco Grand Prix. What a difference a week makes for Checo. Got pulled aside in Barcelona to let Max Verstappen through to victory. This time, Perez got track position and resisted the huge pressure to take a popular win in Monaco. That’s back-to-back victories for Red Bull Racing. Bonus!

Monaco Grand Prix, race results:
1 Sergio Perez Red Bull 1:56:30.265
2 Carlos Sainz Ferrari 1.154
3 Max Verstappen Red Bull 1.491
4 Charles Leclerc Ferrari 2.922
5 George Russell Mercedes 11.968
6 Lando Norris McLaren 12.231
7 Fernando Alonso Alpine 46.358
8 Lewis Hamilton Mercedes 50.388
9 Valtteri Bottas Alfa Romeo 52.525
10 Sebastian Vettel Aston Martin 53.536
11 Pierre Gasly AlphaTauri 54.289
12 Esteban Ocon Alpine 55.644
13 Daniel Ricciardo McLaren 57.635s
14 Lance Stroll Aston Martin 60.802
15 Nicholas Latifi Williams +1 lap
16 Zhou Guanyu Alfa Romeo +1 lap
17 Yuki Tsunoda AlphaTauri +1 lap
– Alex Albon Williams DNF
– Mick Schumacher Haas DNF
– Kevin Magnussen Haas DNF

5 thoughts to “Perez wins wet/dry Monaco Grand Prix as Leclerc only takes fourth”

  1. Monaco Grand Prix race review as reported by Formula1.com.

    Red Bull’s Sergio Perez won his first race of 2022 by 1.1 seconds after a nailbiting end to the Monaco Grand Prix, with Carlos Sainz and Max Verstappen unable to make it past the Mexican – and Charles Leclerc losing out after dropping from pole to P4.

    Rain saw the start delayed and, at 1518 local time, drivers completed one lap, heading back to the pits as a red flag was called. Gazebos unfurled and teams waited until 1605 for a rolling race start behind the Safety Car on wet tyres. The Safety Car pulled in for Lap 3 of 77 and Leclerc led away with Sainz, Perez and Verstappen in tow.

    The front-runners swapped to intermediates, with Perez coming in first on Lap 17, Leclerc and Verstappen following two laps later, while Sainz skipped straight to hards with a switch on Lap 21, Leclerc following for a Ferrari double-stack. Red Bull followed one lap later and pulled off an overcut with their own double-stack – the order was now Perez, Sainz, Verstappen and a furious Leclerc in P4.

    Mick Schumacher spun and crashed spectacularly at Swimming Pool on Lap 27, bringing out another red flag on Lap 30. He walked away, the gearbox and rear suspension having detached from his Haas. Resumption came with a rolling start on Lap 33, Ferrari on hards while Red Bull opted for mediums.

    Perez held his lead and the mediums held their own on the restart, but began to drop off past the Lap 55 mark, with around 10 minutes remaining. It was now that Sainz, Verstappen and Leclerc closed in. The Mexican almost lost out in the dying moments of the race, Sainz almost sticking his nose in front at the hairpin, but victory would be his – a huge statement after a disappointing Spanish Grand Prix.

    With the race timer showing zero on Lap 65, Perez’s margin of victory was just 1.154s over Sainz, Verstappen just 0.337s behind the Spaniard, and Leclerc shocked to finish 2.9s off in P4.

    Having skipped a stop for intermediates – going straight from wets to slicks – George Russell rounded out the top five for Mercedes ahead of McLaren’s Lando Norris.

    Alpine’s Fernando Alonso started seventh and finished there despite Lewis Hamilton hanging on his tail for much of the late phase.

    Hamilton had taken damage in an early scrap with Alpine’s Esteban Ocon, the Frenchman then given a five-second penalty. Despite finishing ninth, he was thus demoted to 12th, giving Valtteri Bottas P9 for Alfa Romeo and Sebastian Vettel the final point for Aston Martin.

    Pierre Gasly’s early charge on intermediates was cut short at P12 when the track dried up and he finished 12th, promoted to 11th thanks to Ocon’s penalty.

    Daniel Ricciardo missed out in P13 ahead of Aston Martin’s Lance Stroll, the last driver on the lead lap.

    Late mistakes saw Yuki Tsunoda finish last and 17th behind Alfa Romeo’s Zhou Guanyu, and 15th place Williams driver Nicholas Latifi.

    There were three retirees, with Kevin Magnussen bowing out before Schumacher’s heavy crash, and Alex Albon quitting late on from last-place.

    Well before lights-out, puffs of grey-flecked cloud encircled the Circuit de Monaco, Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc looking to finish his first home race – and win it – from pole position. Team mate Carlos Sainz would follow him off the front row while Sergio Perez and Max Verstappen occupied the second row for Red Bull.

    After their qualifying crash, Sainz and Perez sported new gearboxes and a suite of new parts in what was surely a long night for their respective crews. Barriers and clouds looming, laps to the grid got under way without a hitch… and then the umbrellas unfurled. The FIA stated the formation laps and start would be delayed, with the field set to begin on wet tyres.

    At 1518 the drivers began their sighting laps on wet tyres behind the Safety Car, rooster tails billowing behind their cars – and a red flag was soon called, prompting instant tents to be deployed. The lengthy delay was stopped at 1605 for a race start behind the Safety Car.

    Lance Stroll and Nicholas Latifi had brushes with the barriers on the formation lap, the Aston Martin driver pitting with a right-rear puncture before the Lap 3 rolling start. Over an hour after it was originally scheduled, the 2022 Monaco Grand Prix began in earnest, with Leclerc squirrelling away from pole, team mate Sainz, Perez and Verstappen in chase.

    Pierre Gasly had also swapped to intermediates, Mick Schumacher coming in on Lap 5 for Haas. After Sebastian Vettel dropped to P10 with Esteban Ocon jumping ahead, the four-time champion pitted on Lap 7, Yuki Tsunoda joining him in chase of the points. The conditions were drying and giving Leclerc and his hunters a choice to make.

    By Lap 10, Leclerc was over 4.5 seconds ahead of Sainz with the Red Bulls stalking the Spaniard. Perez soon called for inters – but stayed out on the wet compounds with a dry line clearly formed.

    Lap 12 saw inter-shod Gasly right on Zhou Guanyu’s tail for P13, the rookie skipping over Nouvelle Chicane and losing out at the inside of Mirabeau, releasing Gasly to fight Daniel Ricciardo for P12. Two laps later, Gasly passed the McLaren into Swimming Pool – perhaps ample proof that the track was calling for intermediates.

    “We are going to go straight to dry [tyres],” asserted Carlos Sainz, now five seconds off his team mate on Lap 15.

    Lewis Hamilton didn’t agree with that plan, boxing at the start of Lap 16 from P8 to switch to intermediates, and emerging in P9 having opened up quite a gap to the midfielder train behind. Perez was the next taker, Lap 17 seeing him go for the green-walled tyres and emerge fourth behind Norris, to release Verstappen in chase of Sainz, who elected not to react.

    Norris did react to Hamilton and went for intermediates, entering fifth and emerging from the pits in P7. Meanwhile, Hamilton attempted a pass on Esteban Ocon for P8 but tapped the inside-right of the Alpine and took front wing damage too. Ocon would later receive a five-second penalty for the collision.

    At the very front, Leclerc and Verstappen chose to pit on Lap 18 for intermediates, emerging in sequence – Mick Schumacher between them – leaving wet-tyred Sainz in the lead ahead of medium-shod Perez.

    Schumacher, notably, had swapped for hard tyres on Lap 17 – front wing damage from a previous off proving the catalyst for his decision. Alex Albon, Ricciardo, Zhou and Latifi following suit soon after.

    The Hamilton-Ocon battle raged on while a flash of red in the pits saw Leclerc and Sainz double-stack for hard tyres leaving the Red Bulls out in front. Sainz emerged third, Leclerc fourth – the Monegasque seething as he was held up in the pits and lost further time with a tough out-lap, a call to stay out on track having come fractions too late for the home hero.

    Red Bull followed Ferrari one lap later, on 22 of 77, for a double-stack swap to hard tyres.

    The resulting order was: Perez, Sainz, Verstappen, then Leclerc. The Red Bulls had seemingly overtaken the Ferraris with an overcut, but they were only split by few seconds.

    Cue a Champions League-worthy save from Real Madrid fan Sainz on Lap 24 when he was right on Perez’s rear wing on the main straight: forced onto the wet line, and then forced to catch a snap of oversteer that would have surely ended his race.

    Haas’s Schumacher couldn’t make a save on Lap 27, however, having spun entering Swimming Pool and hitting the barriers hard, the gearbox and rear of his car flying off – Schumacher walking away but shaken.

    A Virtual Safety Car, then Safety Car, followed. Kevin Magnussen, who had retired moments before with a reliability issue, was one of many concerned over Schumacher’s state.

    The red flag was deployed on Lap 30 as barrier repairs took place. The Stewards, meanwhile had noted Perez and Verstappen for crossing the pit exit line after their stops.

    During the stoppage, Mercedes chose to swap Hamilton’s front wing after his clash with Ocon. And tyre changes came thick and fast too – Red Bull, Mercedes, Alpine, Williams, plus Tsunoda and Zhou going for mediums while the rest, including Ferrari, opted for hard tyres.

    The race restarted on Lap 33 and Perez survived the first few corners before locking up at Mirabeau, but carried on to open up a lead beyond DRS range, when it was enabled on Lap 39. Time was ticking – there were only 30 minutes remaining until the chequered flag.

    On the Lap 33 restart, Hamilton chased Alonso for P7 and was soon backed up into the Spaniard’s team mate Ocon. Alonso led a train of cars stretching all the way back to P18, and with the lead pack bearing down.

    But before Perez began to see blue flags fly, it became clear that the Red Bulls’ medium tyres were dropping off. Sainz was just under a second off the Mexican with 10 minutes left, on Lap 54, with Leclerc gaining on Verstappen.

    Sainz was millimetres off Perez through Portier, the tunnel and Nouvelle Chicane with the time ticking down, the Spaniard having a proper look at Lap 57 – but nothing doing. He had six minutes left and the next lap saw Sainz almost rear-end the Red Bull through the hairpin. The top four were now split by two seconds.

    There were more moments, through Nouvelle Chicane, Rascasse and the hairpin once again, that could have seen Perez lose out – but he kept a cool head on struggling mediums and won by just 1.154s over Sainz.

    The Spaniard meanwhile was just 0.3s ahead of third-place Verstappen at the chequered flag, which flew on Lap 63 of 77.

    “No words, no words… The season is long but we cannot do that. We cannot do that,” were the words of crestfallen fourth-place finisher Leclerc.

    In chase of Norris, George Russell went straight on at Nouvelle Chicane on Lap 9 but passed him for P5 soon after, having forgone a stop for intermediates. McLaren’s Norris ended up sixth after covering off Hamilton’s stop early on, while Alonso finished seventh for Alpine with a traffic jam behind him.

    Hamilton caught damage from his early scrap with Ocon and ended up eighth, as the Frenchman copped a five-second penalty for that collision and was classified 12th.

    Ocon’s penalty promoted Valtteri Bottas to ninth, the Finn having also skipped a stop for intermediates for P9 from P12 on the grid, while Sebastian Vettel took the final point for Aston Martin.

    For AlphaTauri, Gasly took 11th courtesy of Ocon’s penalty, the Frenchman’s early moves on intermediate tyres cut short by the red flag that followed.

    Daniel Ricciardo skipped the stop for intermediates but finished 13th for McLaren, from 14th on the grid, while Stroll took P14, having tapped the barriers behind the Safety Car on Lap 2.

    Zhou dropped to 16th for Alfa Romeo, having produced a stunning save through Nouvelle Chicane on Lap 39, while Tsunoda made two mistakes – at Turn 1 on Lap 56 and another at Sainte Devote three laps later – to finish 17th and last. Those excursions promoted Nicholas Latifi – who almost crashed at Sainte Devote on Lap 10 and behind the Lap 2 Safety Car – to 15th for Williams.

    Alex Albon was the third retiree after the Haas drivers bowed out, the Thai driver pulling into the pits late on from P18. That DNF rendered moot a five-second penalty for going off track and gaining an advantage.

    Perez’s first win of the season came in unlikely circumstances, the Mexican tearful as he soaked it all in on the podium shouldered by somewhat stony-faced podium finishers Sainz and Verstappen. But neither would be as shocked as Leclerc, who not only lost a chance to lead the championship, but another chance to win his home race on Sunday.

  2. Carlos Sainz believes the out-lap traffic cost him the chance to take the Monaco Grand Prix win. Motorsport.com has the news story.

    Ferrari driver Carlos Sainz says traffic on his out-lap after his second pitstop to slicks has cost him a maiden win in a rain-affected Formula 1’s Monaco Grand Prix.

    With overtaking impossible, the wet-to-dry race was all but decided when the leaders timed their final pitstop from to slicks.

    That transition caught out Ferrari, with polesitter and erstwhile leader Charles Leclerc fuming as poorly timed stops from wets to inters and then to slicks saw him slip to fourth behind Sainz and both Red Bulls.

    Sainz was still in with a chance to win the race, however, having pitted from the lead on lap 21 to go straight to slicks.

    That would have given him a chance to stay ahead of Red Bull’s Perez, who had to come in again for hard tyres one lap later on the largely dry track.

    But Perez still came out two second ahead as Sainz encountered traffic on his outlap, which the Spaniard felt cost him the lead and eventual victory.

    “I felt like we did everything that we had to do out there,” Sainz said. “We stayed patient on the wets, we took the right decision to go on to the slick and a terrible outlap there stuck behind a lapped car cost me a race win today.

    “You can understand the frustration because a clean out lap would have secured me the race win today. But it’s how this sport is sometimes.”

    While most teams decided on a stint on intermediates before going onto slicks, Sainz overruled his Ferrari team and decided to go straight from the extreme wet tyres onto the slicks.

    Sainz said he realised early on in the first stint that skipping the intermediates phase would give him the best chance to come out ahead.

    “Yeah, I knew it from halfway through the first stint. I started to see the dry line and I started to realise that it was going to go straight into slicks,” Sainz explained.

    “I think we did the right call as we were leading the race, basically. Then we pitted for that hard tyre. Obviously hard is never easy on the outlap, but I had to do 12 corners or something like that behind the lapped car that cost me at least a couple of seconds that cost me a race win.

    “Anyway, I’m not gonna complain too much. I know that this sport is like that. Checo was unlucky in Jeddah, today he did a great race plus got lucky with myself and in this sport, it will turn around one day or later.”

    After the pitstops, Perez lead Sainz and Max Verstappen home as the clock hit zero on a race that was first red flagged for heavy rain, and then a second time for a heavy shunt for Haas driver Mick Schumacher.

    A frustrated Leclerc came home fourth, with another home victory in Monaco eluding him when he had the car to win. Leclerc also lost a further three points to Verstappen in the drivers’ championship, now trailing the Dutchman by nine points.

  3. Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc commented that the Scuderia made far “too many mistakes” in Monaco Grand Prix defeat. Motorsport.com has the full details.

    Charles Leclerc says Ferrari made “too many mistakes” during the Formula 1 Monaco Grand Prix and it “hurts” after he endured another tough home race having dropped from the lead to finish fourth.

    Leclerc’s race unravelled as the Monaco track dried up after heavy rain delayed the start, with Ferrari opting to keep the polesitter out longer on wet tyres in a bid for a straight switch to dry tyres.

    But after both Sergio Perez and Carlos Sainz got into undercut range on the intermediates, Ferrari pitted Leclerc for the same tyres which dropped him to third.

    With the crossover for dry tyres rapidly approaching, Ferrari pitted Leclerc for a second time shortly afterwards and double stacked him behind Sainz to lose further time, which resulted in Leclerc falling to fourth place behind F1 world title rival Max Verstappen.

    Despite a second red flag for Mick Schumacher’s crash and a run in dry conditions to the end of the race, Leclerc was stuck in fourth place without the opportunity to strike back and missed out on a maiden home race podium – but did at least finish the first home race of his career.

    Reacting to another Monaco GP disappointment, Leclerc felt Ferrari made strategy mistakes with both his pitstops and called on the team to improve as he dropped nine points behind Verstappen at the top of the F1 drivers’ standings.

    “Sometimes mistakes can happen but there has been too many mistakes today overall,” Leclerc told Sky Sports.

    “Obviously in those conditions we rely a little bit on what the team can see because you don’t see what the others are doing with intermediates, with dry tyres.

    “I’ve been asked questions if I wanted to go from the extreme wets to the slicks and I said, ‘yes but not now, a bit later on in the race’, but I don’t understand what made us change our minds and go on the intermediates.

    “We got undercut then I stopped behind Carlos. There have been a lot of mistakes and we cannot afford to do that.”

    Leclerc also felt these mistakes are even more critical compared to previous years, as Ferrari is fighting for the F1 world title against Red Bull.

    “It is hard as it has been in the other years here, so I am getting use to it and getting back home feeling disappointed but we cannot do that, especially in a moment that we are in now,” he said.

    “We are extremely strong now, the pace is strong, we need to take these opportunities, we cannot lose so many points like this, it is not even from first to second, it is from first to fourth, because after the first mistake we did another one.

    “I love my team and I am sure we’ll come back stronger, it hurts a lot.”

  4. Haas F1 driver Mick Schumacher said that his huge Monaco Grand Prix crash felt “super weird”. Motorsport.com provides the story.

    Mick Schumacher called his Monaco Formula 1 crash “super weird” after a huge impact with the barrier at the exit of Swimming Pool warranted a trip to the medical centre.

    Schumacher lost control of his Haas F1 car while coming through the Swimming Pool chicane on Lap 26 of the race, snapping to the right-hand side of the track. His car glanced the Armco before then going into the Tecpro barrier at the exit of the corner.

    The accident saw the rear-end and gearbox of his Haas VF-22 detach on impact, but Schumacher was quick to report over the radio that he was OK.

    The race was initially put under a virtual safety car before a full safety car followed. Race control ultimately decided to throw a red flag so that full repairs of the barrier could be completed.

    Schumacher was taken to the medical centre as a precaution after the accident, but was quickly cleared by the FIA staff.

    Upon arriving in the media pen, Schumacher confirmed he felt OK, and that he was confused by how he had lost control of the car.

    “It felt super weird,” Schumacher said. “From what I saw on the video, it just seemed like we were like 10 centimetres further out. And that kind of triggered maybe a wet patch or whatever with the front wheel, which then translated into a rear wheel slide.

    “That’s where basically the rear came around. I tried to correct it and that’s why it went to the left.

    “It’s very, very unfortunate and very annoying.”

    Schumacher’s crash marked the end of Haas’s race after teammate Kevin Magnussen was forced to retire a few laps earlier due to a problem on his car.

    Magnussen said it was “a power unit issue of some sort”, and that he felt his pace on the fringes of the points at that point had been good.

    “It was going well until that, we were in P11, much faster than [Valtteri] Bottas, Magnussen said.

    “I was really looking forward to that pit stop. I had just said to the team I wanted to pit for slicks, a couple of guys behind had already pitted for intermediates, we were still on full wet and wanted to go straight to the slick, and that was a big opportunity.

    “I’m really disappointed, of course for myself and the team today, because they lost a good opportunity to score points and come back from a disappointing day yesterday.

    “The car was great, I had really good pace in these conditions. So yeah. Onto the next one.”

  5. Alpine driver Fernando Alonso commented that it was ‘not my problem’ for being too slow which led to frustration for Lewis Hamilton. Motorsport.com has the news story.

    Fernando Alonso says it is “not my problem” that his slow driving to save his tyres after the red flag during Sunday’s Formula 1 race in Monaco frustrated Lewis Hamilton.

    Following the red flag, Alonso sat seventh for the restart and opted to fit a set of medium-compound tyres to see out the remainder of the race.

    But the Alpine driver’s pace was significantly slower than the cars ahead, losing between three and four seconds per lap to the leaders, and a significant amount of time to Lando Norris in sixth place. Alpine confirmed he did not have any issue on his car.

    It left Hamilton frustrated as he tried to find a way past Alonso, who then upped his pace with 15 minutes remaining, setting the fastest lap of the race.

    Alonso explained after the chequered flag that Alpine’s calculations for the final stint of the race suggested he would need to save his medium tyres, reasoning his slow stint.

    “I think we didn’t have the tyres or the tyre life to finish the race when it was 33 laps [remaining]” Alonso said.

    “It’s a sprint race, we had two choices: refit the hard tyres from the beginning of the race, or put the medium tyre. We put the medium tyre, but our life estimation was shorter than 33.

    “So we didn’t know if we could finish the race, so I managed a lot the tyres for 15 laps, and then I pushed for the remaining 15 when they told me that Esteban [Ocon] had the penalty.”

    When it was noted that his pace frustrated Hamilton a lot, Alonso replied: “Not my problem.” He added that it was “extremely easy” to keep the Mercedes behind due to the difficulty in overtaking around the Monaco track.

    Hamilton admitted in his media session that it was “kind of frustrating” sitting behind Alonso for so many laps, but said he was “just cruising behind him”.

    P7 marked Alonso’s best result of the 2022 season so far, and helped to draw Alpine to within a point of Alfa Romeo in the fight for fifth place in the constructors’ standings.

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