Perez wins first Monaco GP after Ferrari strategy blunder

Sergio Perez responded to team orders in Spain by snatching the win in Monaco from under Ferrari’s nose.

The race was delayed early on after heavy showers caught the teams off-guard, forcing them to start behind the safety car briefly before the race got underway later than expected.

However, once the race began, strategy surrounding the change from wets to intermediates and then to dry tyres altered the story of the 2022 Monaco Grand Prix very quickly.

After dominating the race at the front, Ferrari found their split-strategy costing them the race lead before a heavy crash for Mick Schumacher called out another red flag.

When the race resumed, Perez led Sainz on medium tyres as polesitter Leclerc fell down to fourth. Red Bull had opted for medium tyres while their title rivals went for hard tyres, focusing on the long-game as the timer counted down.

The top-four were nose-to-tail in the closing stages, but Perez was able to lead them home on a worn set of yellow-walled tyres to win his first Monaco Grand Prix.

Perez proves Red Bull wrong after Spain strategy calls

The three-time Grand Prix winner felt that his team denied him a possible race win after being told to stay behind teammate Max Verstappen when the Dutchman was challenging Mercedes’ George Russell.

This left him second in a race that he surely believed could have been his, leaving him seemingly seething despite claims he was happy for the team.

But, the Mexican fought back against the possibility that he will be left to back up Verstappen this year by jumping at the opportunity to win the Monaco Grand Prix.

If he can keep up his current performance, there is the chance that Perez could claw himself back into what seemed to be a championship battle between nobody but Verstappen and Charles Leclerc.

With 15 races left to go, it is all to play for at the front in the fight for the world championship.

Ferrari abandon Monaco 1-2 through strategy calls

After claiming another qualifying 1-2 this season, it looked all but certain that Charles Leclerc would claim the first win of his career around the streets that he grew up on.

With rain in the air, strategy was key in deciding who would stand on the top step of the podium. However, unfortunately for the Tifosi, Ferrari were the ones who got it all wrong.

With a drying track, Red Bull brought Perez in for intermediate tyres earlier than the scarlet cars, with leader Leclerc eventually pitting in for the green-walled compound two laps later, leaving him vulnerable to the undercut.

Meanwhile, Sainz continued on, set on switching straight to the dry hard tyre, eventually doing so on lap 22. But Leclerc was told to pit on the same lap, leading to a slightly-slower stop for the Monegasque.

Perez would jump the two Ferraris by pitting for hard tyres a lap later after Sainz had become lodged behind lapped traffic.

Although a later attempt to push past the leader on hard tyres would come for the Spaniard, their efforts would be left futile.

Speaking to David Coulthard in the post-race interviews, Sainz believes that the lapped car cost him what could have been the first win of his career.

He said:

“It was [a crazy race]but I felt we did everything that we had to do out there. We stayed patient on the wets, we took the right decision to go onto the slick.

“A lapped car, a terrible out-lap there, stuck behind the 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.”

McGregor’s Haas predictions disproved by double-DNF

After Saturday’s Qualifying session, former UFC-champion Conor McGregor predicted that the team he spent his time with in Monaco would see a strong result when talking to Sky Sports F1.

Unfortunately for the team and their guest, the Americans faced a double-DNF following a difficult time in the principality.

Kevin Magnussen was forced to retire from the race after being hit by a system water pressure loss on lap 21, the first DNF for the team in their 2022 campaign.

Just six laps later, Schumacher suffered an incident that saw his rear axel separated from his VF-22, thankfully leaving the German driver unharmed as he exited the Grand Prix.

A difficult day for Haas continues a poor run for the squad, with a 14th place finish in Spain their highest result since their last point-scoring race at the Emilia Romagna Grand Prix.

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