Max Verstappen romped home to a dominating win at the Monaco GP. Having qualified P2, the Dutch sensation, in the Red Bull Honda, was promoted when pole-sitter Charles Leclerc failed to start the race because of a drivetrain issue. From there the Red Bull never gave up the lead.
He was followed for the first half by the Mercedes of Valtteri Bottas who retired during a bungled pitstop. For the rest of the race, Verstappen was followed by Carlos Sainz in the lone Ferrari, living up to the potential his pole-sitting teammate had shown through the weekend.
Lando Norris finished in an excellent P3 for the McLaren just ahead of Sergio Perez in the second Red Bull who was one of the drivers of the day having gained 5 places from his original starting position.
Carlos Sainz looked like he had the pace to take on Bottas regardless of his retirement
Sebastian Vettel had his best race with his new team Aston Martin. He finished in a superb P5 and was voted the driver of the day. Vettel left behind speedy cars like Pierre Gasly's Alpha Tauri, Lewis Hamilton's Mercedes and his own teammate Lance Stroll.
Particularly for Hamilton and his team, Mercedes this was a disastrous weekend. Not only the other Mercedes didn't finish the race, but Hamilton also ceded the lead of the world championship to Verstappen who leads by 4 points. Hamilton also gained a point for the fastest lap of the race, which would be some kind of a consolatory effort.
While Verstappen was impressive, Perez arguably gained even more
Esteban Ocon in the Alpine finished in P9, just ahead of Antonio Giovinazzi who finished in P10, gaining points for the back trotting Alfa Romeo team. His senior teammate, former world champion, Kimi Raikkonen finished in P11. Daniel Ricciardo finished in just P12 which meant that Mclaren couldn't capitalise on Leclerc's DNF to gain points against Ferrari. Now it barely stays in P3 ahead of the Prancing Horse by two points.
Fernando Alonso had a rather quiet return to Monaco with him finishing P13 in the second Alpine. George Russell was the lead Williams in P14 followed by his teammate Nicholas Latifi. Yuki Tsunoda didn't exhibit the potential of the Alpha Tauri and just managed P16.
The Haas cars as usual were the final two cars, though this time around Mazepin finally got the wood over Mick Schumacher, with the Russian beating his teammate for the first time.
Overall, it was a rather uneventful race with the two retirements happening off-track which meant there was no safety car or stoppage to the race.
Standings:
1 Max Verstappen RED BULL 1:38:56.820
2 Carlos Sainz FERRARI +8.968s
3 Lando Norris MCLAREN +19.427s
4 Sergio Perez RED BULL +20.490s
5 Sebastian Vettel ASTON MARTIN +52.591s
6 Pierre Gasly ALPHATAURI +53.896s
7 Lewis Hamilton MERCEDES +68.231s
8 Lance Stroll ASTON MARTIN +1 lap
9 Esteban Ocon ALPINE +1 lap
10 Antonio Giovinazzi ALFA ROMEO +1 lap
11 Kimi Räikkönen ALFA ROMEO +1 lap
12 Daniel Ricciardo MCLAREN +1 lap
13 Fernando Alonso ALPINE +1 lap
14 George Russell WILLIAMS +1 lap
15 Nicholas Latifi WILLIAMS +1 lap
16 Yuki Tsunoda ALPHATAURI +1 lap
17 Nikita Mazepin HAAS +1 lap
18 Mick Schumacher HAAS +lap
DNF
Charles Leclerc
Valtteri Bottas
