The teams and drivers were in Monaco this weekend of the FORMULA 1 GRAND PRIX DE MONACO 2022 around the narrow streets of the principality. Qualifying resulted in a Ferrari front row lock out with Red Bull directly behind, but Sunday brought rain to spice things up.
The start of the race was delayed for more than an hour as some heavy rain hit the streets of Monaco for the first time this weekend. Initially the start was suspended for 15 minutes, but after a couple of formation laps behind the safety car it was red flagged to allow the rain to subside.
When the cars emerged from the pit lane again, they began with a lap behind the safety car. Lance Stroll touched the barrier behind the safety car in the hairpin. Fellow Canadian driver Nicholas Latifi went straight into the barrier in the hairpin as well.
The rolling start was on lap 3 and it was an orderly start of the race. Pierre Gasly made an early gamble, pitting for the intermediate tyres on the first racing lap of the race. Although it was a slippery start on the tyres, they showed their pace within a couple of laps. Gasly provided fans with some entertainment in the opening stage of the race as he battled his way through the Monaco traffic, showing that it’s difficult but not impossible to overtake.
On lap 16, Lewis Hamilton pitted for the intermediate tyres. Sergio Perez did the same the following lap. Ferrari originally wanted Carlos Sainz to pit for intermediate tyres, but he insisted on staying out a little longer to change directly to the slick tyres.
While trying to overtake Esteban Ocon on the inside of the first corner, Hamilton was hit by the Alpine driver. Although there was no damage, tensions were high between the two drivers. Ocon was eventually given a five-second penalty for the incident.
Charles Leclerc pitted for intermediate tyres on lap 19 and Max Verstappen followed him into the pit lane. A couple of laps later, drivers near the rear of the field made the switch to the hard compound tyres.
On lap 21, Carlos Sainz pitted from the lead of the race for the hard compound tyres. The team also called in Leclerc, but then frantically told him to stay out, but he didn’t hear the call or it was too late. He double stacked, having to wait for his teammate to exit the Ferrari pit box.
Both Red Bull drivers pitted the following lap for the slick tyres. Perez rejoined the race ahead of Carlos Sainz and Max Verstappen rejoined narrowly ahead of Charles Leclerc. However, a pit lane violation was noted for Verstappen, who appeared to cross the pit exit line.
On lap 27, the safety car was deployed for a big crash in the swimming pool chicane for Mick Schumacher. The car spun and slammed into the barriers, ripping off the gearbox of the car. Schumacher was unharmed. The race was red flagged to allow the marshals to make repairs to the barrier.
Under the red flag, teams were able to change their tyres and make repairs before the rolling restart. Both Red Bull drivers chose the medium compound tyres, while Ferrari opted to stay with the hard compound tyres. In P5, George Russell changed to the medium tyres, but Lando Norris behind stayed with the hard compound tyres.
The race restarted on lap 33 of 77, meaning the race would almost certainly end on time instead of the entire race distance. On lap 40, the DRS was enabled with about 30 minutes remaining in the race clock.
The medium compound tyres didn’t give Red Bull any performance advantage, with Ferrari actually lapping faster on the harder tyres.
Fernando Alonso in P7 caused a train of cars behind, dragging the rest of the field back to more than 50 seconds behind the leader. This allowed Lando Norris to make a free pit stop on lap 52 for a set of medium tyres. Thanks to the clean air ahead and the new tyres, Norris was able to set the fastest lap of the race.
With ten minutes remaining in the race, the top four drivers were nose to tail in the battle for the race victory. But this being Monaco, no one was able to get by the leading Red Bull, with Perez earning his third career win to become the most successful Mexican Formula One driver and the first North American driver to win the Monaco Grand Prix since Canadian Gilles Villeneuve in 1981. Sainz and Verstappen wrapped up the podium.
Next up on the calendar is another street circuit, although it’s a completely different circuit from Monaco. It will be the Azerbaijan Grand Prix on the weekend of June 12.
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| Race Results | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | S. Perez | 25 | |
| 2 | C. Sainz | 18 | |
| 3 | M. Verstappen | 15 | |
| 4 | C. Leclerc | 12 | |
| 5 | G. Russell | 10 | |
| 6 | L. Norris | 9 | |
| 7 | F. Alonso | 6 | |
| 8 | L. Hamilton | 4 | |
| 9 | V. Bottas | 2 | |
| 10 | S. Vettel | 1 | |
| 11 | P. Gasly | ||
| 12 | E. Ocon | ||
| 13 | D. Ricciardo | ||
| 14 | L. Stroll | ||
| 15 | N. Latifi | ||
| 16 | G. Zhou | ||
| 17 | Y. Tsunoda | ||
| DNF | A. Albon | ||
| DNF | M. Schumacher | ||
| DNF | K. Magnussen | ||
