THE MONACO GP IN 5 KEY MOMENTS
1 Ferrari blunder hands victory to Pérez
“I don’t think I’ve ever driven in the wet here,” said Charles Leclerc after taking his second consecutive Monaco Grand Prix pole. “So it’s going to be tricky.”
In hindsight these words seem prophetic, though ultimately it was a lapse in Ferrari’s operational slickness rather than a failure of Leclerc’s virtuosity which cost him the win.
Sergio Pérez’s Q3 crash consigned both Red Bulls to the second row of the grid and, because the race began in extreme wet conditions behind the Safety Car, over an hour later than scheduled, unusually the result of the Monaco GP hinged on strategic timing of pitstops.
On a drying track, Pérez was the first of the leaders to come in for intermediates, at the end of lap 16, but Sainz refused an instruction to pit, telling the Ferrari pitwall it would be better to hang on and go straight to slicks.
The track was drying quickly, causing the wets to overheat. Pérez emerged behind Lando Norris but when the McLaren stopped
