Sergio Pérez of Red Bull won his first race of 2022 with 1.1 seconds after a convincing finish at the Monaco Grand Prix, with Carlos Sainz and Max Verstappen unable to beat the Mexican, and Charles Leclerc losing after fall from the pole to the P4.
The rain delayed the start and at 15.18 local time, the riders completed a lap, returning to the pits when a red flag was called. The lookouts unfolded and teams waited until 1605 to start a race behind the Safety Car with wet tires. The Safety Car stopped on lap 3 of 77 and Leclerc led with Sainz, Pérez and Verstappen in tow.
The first ones went to the intermediates, with Pérez coming in first on lap 17, Leclerc and Verstappen followed two laps later, while Sainz jumped straight to the hard with a change on lap 21, Leclerc followed by a double Ferrari battery. Red Bull followed a lap later and got a cut with his own double stack: now the order was Perez, Sainz, Verstappen and a furious Leclerc in P4.
Mick Schumacher spun and crashed spectacularly into Swimming Pool on lap 27, causing another red flag on lap 30. He walked away, the gearbox and the rear suspension had come off his Haas. The resumption came with a progressive start on lap 33, Ferrari with hardships while Red Bull opted for means.
Perez maintained the lead and the media held on to the restart, but began to go down beyond the mark of lap 55, with about 10 minutes to go. It was now that Sainz, Verstappen and Leclerc closed. The Mexican almost lost in the last moments of the race, Sainz almost put his nose in front of the fork, but the victory would be his, a huge statement after a disappointing Spanish Grand Prix. Awards.
With the race timer showing zero on lap 65, Pérez’s margin of victory was only 1,154 s over Sainz, Verstappen just 0.337 s behind the Spaniard and Leclerc was surprised to finish at 2.9 s and P4.
1 Sergio Perez PER Red Bull Racing 1: 56: 30.265 25 2 Carlos Sainz SAI Ferrari + 1.154s 18 3 Max Verstappen VER Red Bull Racing + 1.491s 15 4 Charles Leclerc LEC Ferrari + 2.922s 12 5 George Russell RUS Mercedess +11.968 10
After skipping a stop for the intermediates, going straight from wet to smooth, George Russell completed Mercedes ’top five ahead of McLaren’s Lando Norris.
Fernando Alonso of Alpine started seventh and finished there even though Lewis Hamilton hung from the tail for much of the final stage.
Hamilton had been injured in a first step with Alpine’s Esteban Ocon, the Frenchman received a five-second penalty. Despite finishing ninth, he dropped to 12th place, giving Valtteri Bottas P9 for Alfa Romeo and Sebastian Vettel the final point for Aston Martin.
Monaco Grand Prix 2022: “No words, no words”: Leclerc was speechless after losing the victory at home
Pierre Gasly’s first intermediate load was cut to 12th when the track dried up and he finished 12th, rising to 11th thanks to a penalty from Ocon.
Daniel Ricciardo was lost in 13th place ahead of Aston Martin’s Lance Stroll, the last driver on the lap.
The latest mistakes put Yuki Tsunoda in last place and 17th behind Zhou Guanyu of Alfa Romeo, and Williams driver Nicholas Latifi 15th.
There were three retirees, with Kevin Magnussen retiring before the heavy Schumacher crash, and Alex Albon leaving late from last place.
HOW IT HAPPENED
Long before the lights went out, gray-spotted clouds surrounded the Monaco Circuit, Charles Leclerc of Ferrari looking to finish his first race at home and win it from pole position. His teammate Carlos Sainz would follow him from the front row, while Sergio Pérez and Max Verstappen occupied the second row of Red Bull.
After their classification accident, Sainz and Pérez brought new gearboxes and a set of new parts in what was surely a long night for their respective crews. Barriers and clouds came closer, the laps on the grid started smoothly … and then the umbrellas unfurled. The FIA stated that the laps of training and the start would be delayed, with the field ready to start with wet tires.
At 3:18 p.m., drivers began their observation laps with wet tires behind the safety car, rooster tails waving behind their cars, and a red flag was soon called, prompting tents to be deployed. instant campaign. The long delay stopped at 16.05 to start the race behind the Safety Car.
Lance Stroll and Nicholas Latifi had brushes with the barriers on the training lap, the Aston Martin rider punctured his right back before the start of the third lap. More than an hour after it was originally scheduled, the 2022 Monaco Grand Prix began in earnest, with Leclerc squirrel away from the pole, his teammate Sainz, Pérez and Verstappen in pursuit.
Heavy rains delayed the start of the Monaco Grand Prix
Pierre Gasly had also switched to intermediates, with Mick Schumacher entering lap 5 for Haas. After Sebastian Vettel dropped to 10th place with Esteban Ocon jumping ahead, the four-time champion entered the chest on lap 7, and Yuki Tsunoda joined in search of points. Conditions were drying up and giving Leclerc and his hunters a choice.
On lap 10, Leclerc was more than 4.5 seconds ahead of Sainz with the Red Bulls chasing the Spaniard. Perez soon asked for interleaving, but was left out of the wet compounds with a clearly formed dry line.
Lap 12 saw Gasly between shoes right in Zhou Guanyu’s tail for 13th position, the rookie jumped over Nouvelle Chicane and lost inside Mirabeau, dropping Gasly to fight Daniel Ricciardo for in 12th place. Two laps later, Gasly passed the McLaren in the pool, perhaps a wide test that the track calls for intermediates.
“We are going to dry directly [tyres]Said Carlos Sainz, now five seconds behind his teammate on lap 15.
Lewis Hamilton did not agree with this plan, boxing at the start of lap 16 from the 8th position to switch to the intermediate position, and emerged in the 9th position after opening a large gap. to the midfielder who was training behind. Perez was next, lap 17 saw him go for the green-walled tires and come out fourth behind Norris, to let go of Verstappen in pursuit of Sainz, who chose not to react.
Norris reacted to Hamilton and went through intermediates, coming in fifth and out of the pits in 7th place. Meanwhile, Hamilton tried a pass to Esteban Ocon for the P8, but touched the Alpine’s right inside and also suffered damage to the front wing. Ocon would later receive a five-second penalty for the collision.
Ocon would receive a 5-second penalty for colliding with Hamilton …
At the head, Leclerc and Verstappen opted to pit on lap 18 for the intermediates, leaving in sequence, Mick Schumacher between them, leaving Sainz, with wet tires, at the head ahead of Perez, with medium shoes.
In particular, Schumacher had been replaced by hard tires on lap 17: damage to the front wing of a previous low proved the catalyst for his decision. Alex Albon, Ricciardo, Zhou and Latifi follow suit shortly afterwards.
The battle between Hamilton and Ocon continued as a red lightning in the pits saw Leclerc and Sainz make double stacks of hard tires leaving the Red Bulls ahead. Sainz came out third, Leclerc fourth, the Monegasque boiling as he held back in the pits and wasted more time with a hard lap, a call to stay off the track after fractions arrived too late for the local hero .
Red Bull followed Ferrari one lap later, on the 22nd of 77, for a double-stack change for hard tires.
The resulting order was: Perez, Sainz, Verstappen, then Leclerc. Apparently, the Red Bulls had overtaken the Ferraris by an overstitch, but they only split for a few seconds.
Make a stop in the Champions League worthy of Real Madrid fan Sainz on lap 24 when he was right in the back wing of Pérez on the main straight: forced on the wet line and then forced to take an oversteer shot that surely he would have finished his career. .
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