We saw treacherous conditions in Monaco but Max was as reliable as ever to take a brilliantly worked second Monaco Grand Prix win.
Finishing almost half a minute ahead of Aston Martin’s Fernando Alonso, Max put in a marathon opening stint on medium tyres, when rain changed the shape of the race in the final 20 laps. Checo Pérez, meanwhile, finished in 16th place at the end of a tough afternoon in the Principality.
Having secured pole position in qualifying on Saturday, Max had said the key was to stay calm and deal with whatever curve balls Monaco might throw his way and the Dutchman proved as good as his word across all 78 laps.
When the red lights went out at the start, the Dutchman held his advantage from first on the grid and took the lead ahead of Alonso as the leaders went into Sainte Devote.
Checo, who had started 20th after a mistake in qualifying, pitted at the end of lap one. The Mexican’s stop was purely strategic, as he shed his starting medium tyres for a set of hard tyres which he aimed to take to the end of the race. He emerged back onto the track in P18.
Max began to build a gap between himself and Aston Martin’s Alonso and Alpine’s Ocon. By lap 11 Max’s advantage had widened to almost four seconds and with 17 laps gone he was seven seconds clear of the Aston Martin.
Meanwhile at the rear of the field Checo’s patience on the hard tyres was beginning to pay off and at the end of lap 18 and he muscled his way past Williams’ Logan Sargeant to take P17 and when Alex Albon pitted in the other Williams, the Mexican rose to P16. Checo’s next target was Aston Martin’s Lance Stroll.
The skies above Monaco threatened to bring rain, however, and as other starters on the medium tyre began to pit for a switch for hards, Max was told to keep going on his starting mediums as Alonso, on hard tyres, was targeting a longer first stint that might take him to the anticipated rain and a switch to wet weather tyres.
Max’s race was now about keeping his starting set of tyres alive, and as the rain stayed away the Dutchman’s front left in particular began to look worn.
Shortly before half distance when Max came up to lap Checo, who was battling the other Aston of Lance Stroll, Checo moved aside and Max slipped past both. But when Checo tried to make his way past too, there was contact between the Mexican and the Canadian and Checo was forced to cut the chicane.
There was more woe for Checo on the next lap as he then clipped the rear of Kevin Magnussen’s Haas at the chicane and damaged his front wing. Checo and the team decided to pit for a new nosecone along with a set of medium tyres and emerged in P19.
Despite his fading tyres, Max was able to continue to stretch his advantage, and was 9.5s ahead by lap 41. But on lap 51 when Max’s race engineer was on the radio to say spots of rain had appeared between Turns 6 and 8. McLaren’s Lando Norris confirmed the conditions and told his team the rain was getting worse at the top of the circuit.
Alonso chose to pit and at the end of lap 54 where he opted to fit medium tyres. The Aston Martin driver’s decision proved pivotal. The rain continued to intensify and after holding out on his medium tyres and after clipping the barriers following a slide at Portier, Max finally pitted for intermediate tyres.
With Alonso switching to inters on the next lap Max now held a 23-second lead over the Spanish driver, with Ocon four seconds further back in third.
As the rain continued to worsen, Magnussen slid into the barriers at Rascasse but he was able to continue and headed to the pit lane for wet tyres. Soon after, Checo hit trouble again, first when Russell rejoined into his path after an off and the pair collided, and then when he lost control in the Swimming Pool section and hit the barriers on the left side, sustaining a puncture.
He pitted again, taking on full wets. After a later switch back to inters, Checo finished the race in P16.
At the front, though, Max was easing his way to the chequered flag and with the rain subsiding, his pace increased again and after 78 laps he crossed the line to take his 39th career win. The Dutchman’s triumph is also the team’s third in a row in Monaco and its seventh overall in the Principality.
Securing his second win in a row to take his total to four for the season, driver Max Verstappen said: “It’s super nice to win here again in Monaco! It was actually quite a difficult race, we were on the medium to begin with and Fernando on the hard compound, so we didn’t want the first stint to be that long but we had to stay out.
“The rain also made it quite complicated, we made the call for inters, the first few laps on them were incredibly slippery. I clipped the walls a few times again, but that’s Monaco! When you are that far in the lead, you don’t want to push that hard but also you don’t want to loose too much time.
“We managed to stay calm and bring it home and we scored a good amount of points for the Team. I of course will celebrate this evening with my friends and family but tomorrow we focus on Spain.”
Reflecting on what was a difficult weekend, driver Sergio Perez said: “It was the worst weekend I can remember in a while; everything went wrong and today we paid the price for a poor mistake from myself in qualifying. I am really sad about the performance, not just today but the whole weekend.
“I knew yesterday would be extremely costly and ultimately it was 25 points. The conditions were tricky out there and there was some hope that when it started raining we could get things right but we didn’t, it was a shame. I don’t think there was much we could have done differently; all the damage was done yesterday. I only want to move on from this race because it was a terrible weekend.
“I still have hope in the Championship but I know I cannot afford another zero in a race, so I really hope I can be back to my normal level in Barcelona. I need to be perfect in the next few races, I need to get victories and get them soon. I am happy we are racing in a few days.”
After making it six wins from six races so far this season, Team Principal Christian Horner said: “Winning here is special, it always means just that little bit more, every driver wants this one on their CV. And for us it’s our third in a row for the Team and our seventh in total here in Monaco.
“We knew coming into this weekend that this would be our biggest challenge of the season so far and Monaco threw everything at Max today. He managed the medium tyre and then the changing conditions well, made the switch to the intermediate tyre and saw it home. Another fantastic drive.
“Unfortunately, it was a difficult weekend for Checo. Despite his best efforts, there was very little he could do after yesterday’s qualifying. Knowing Checo though, he will learn from his mistakes and respond quickly in Spain. What we are seeing here at track though is just the shop window to everything that is happening on a daily basis back at the factory.
“The win here today is representative of the performance and dedication by the Team as an overall on a wider scale. A brilliant win with many lessons but one we will certainly savour.”