Verstappen wins in wet Monaco

Max Verstappen has won the Grand Prix of Monaco for the second time. The 25-year-old was top from start to finish in his town of residence. The Spaniard Fernando Alonso (Aston Martin) finished in second, third place was for Frenchman Esteban Ocon (alpine). Nyck de Vries finished outside the points in the twelfth.

Verstappen has won four out of the six grand prix this season and is now firmly in the lead in the championship. The Red Bull driver enlarged his lead from 14 to 39 points over his Red Bull teammate Sergio Pérez. The Mexican crashed early in qualifying on Saturday, meaning he had very little chance of getting points. The narrow streets of Monaco make it almost impossible to overtake, and Perez was, therefore, unsuccessful in coming close to the top 10. The Mexican damaged his car trying to overtake, made five pit stops, and finished in sixteenth place.

The Monaco GP had a chaotic ending. It started to rain with just over twenty laps to go, leading to many pit stops, slips, and crashes. Verstappen made no mistakes and won just like he did in 2021 in the principality.

The Dutchman had won pole position on Saturday for the first time in Monaco. With that he had already laid the base for the victory. Verstappen got away quickly at the start getting through the corner the quickest, and then drove unthreatened to victory.

The Red Bull driver started on medium tires while Alonso, who qualified as second, had hard tires under his Aston Martin. The Spaniard could drive for longer than the Dutch driver, who was complaining halfway through the race to his team about the tires worsening. The team leader advised him to drive on as he would lose the top spot to Alonso, where he to go into the pits.

When the rain got heavier after 50 laps, Aston Martin went for a gamble that did not pay off by sending Alonso out with medium tires. There was so much water on the track that the intermediates were necessary. Verstappen went into the pits for intermediates a lap later, followed by Alonso, who made his second pit stop. With a comfortable lead of around 25 seconds, the Dutch driver drove the rest of the race with ease.