Reigning world champion Max Verstappen continued his march in the direction of his third title on Sunday when he beat Fernando Alonso in Monaco to additional lengthen his F1 championship lead. F1Technical’s Balázs Szabó highlights the key classes we learned from the Monaco Grand Prix.
Another managed victory – Double world champion Max Verstappen collected his thirty ninth victory at yesterday’s Monaco Grand Prix which made him the most profitable Red Bull Racing driver when it comes to race wins. The Dutchman has not failed to complete decrease than second this season after having taken 4 victories and two second-placed finishes to date in 2023.
After 169 F1 race begins, this weekend noticed the reigning world champion safe his 83rd podium, acquire a complete of 2155.5 factors, snatch his twenty third pole place and led his 2,000th lap of his F1 profession.
103rd podium – The two-time world champion Fernando Alonso scored his 103rd F1 podium at the Monaco Grand Prix which signifies that he stood on the rostrum in 5 of the opening six races in 2023. Despite his unbelievable data in several racing classes throughout his illustrious profession, Alonso endured a drought after he left the Scuderia Ferrari at the finish of the 2014 F1 season as he solely scored a single podium end with Alpine at the 2021 Qatar Grand Prix. However, the Spaniard appears to have made the proper name when he determined to go away the French outfit to affix Aston Martin for 2023.
Asked whether or not a win would have been doable with out the pointless cease for brand spanking new slick tyres, Alonso stated:: “I’m actually pleased with this end result. The race was not simple – and the rain made it tough for everyone, and really dangerous strategically. I don’t suppose the further cease [first Mediums, then Intermediates] affected the end result.
“It’s always hard to read the race fully from the cockpit, but on the lap I stopped, the track was completely dry apart from Turns Seven and Eight – so why fit Inters, especially when it felt like a small shower and we had plenty of margin behind us.”
Third podium – Despite not anticipating an attention-grabbing efficiency from his automotive at Monaco, Esteban Ocon secured his third profession podium on Sunday, withstanding the strain from Ferrari’s Carlos Sainz and Mercedes driver Lewis Hamilton. The 26-year-old scored his first podium end at the 2020 Sakhir Grand Prix earlier than rising victorious at the 2021 Hungarian Grand Prix. As for this yr, he scored factors solely two instances in the first 5 races earlier than snatching an sudden podium end in Monte Carlo.
Landmark – The 69th Monaco Grand Prix was an vital milestone for each the Haas and Alpine outfit. The American squad began their a hundred and fiftieth Formula One race after becoming a member of the pinnacle of motorsport again in 2016. However, the Monaco spherical noticed the Ferrari-powered workforce solely rating a seventeenth and nineteenth end with Kevin Magnussen and Nico Hulkenberg and thus failing so as to add to their tally of eight factors.
By distinction, Alpine has accomplished their greatest race weekend to date in 2023 by securing a 3rd and seventh-placed end and scoring 21 championship factors. The Enstone-based squad discover themselves in fifth place in the Constructors’ Championship due to their tally of 35 factors.
Five compounds in motion – It is an actual rarity that Pirelli’s all 5 tyres make look in a race. That was the case in Monaco which has change into to first spherical in 2023 to function all three dry climate tyres and the two moist climate tyres.
On the C3 Hard tyres, it was Haas driver Kevin Magnussen, who accomplished the longest stint with 56 laps whereas the quickest lap on that compounds belonged to Lewis Hamilton. On the yellow-sided mediums, Max Verstappen accomplished his longest run, however Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc set the quickest lap with a 1m15.773s. Although Zhou Guanyu began on the red-walled mushy compound, he switched to hards at the finish of the first lap, leaving Williams driver Logan Sargeant to finish greater than a racing lap. The Florida-born driver racked up 29 consecutive laps on the softest compound in Pirelli’s vary along with his greatest lap being a 1m17.302s.
Intermediate was the tyre to mount on when a late rain bathe arrived in Monaco. Alfa Romeo’s Valtteri Bottas was to first to pit for the green-walled tyre, finishing a 25-lap stint. Enjoying the greatest circumstances along with his early change to moist climate tyres, he set the quickest lap on that compound with a 1m24.637s. Haas racer Nico Hulkenberg registered the longest stint on the full moist climate tyres, getting 16 laps underneath his belt on the blue-banded tyres and posting the quickest lap on that compound with a 1m32.994s.
Plenty of pitstops throughout the #MonacoGP due to rain late in the race 🌧️
Full pit cease chart ℹ️👇 #Fit4F1 pic.twitter.com/ObODnh9U9d
— Pirelli Motorsport (@pirellisport) May 28, 2023
The most colourful – In phrases of variety of completely different compounds, it was Logan Sargeant and Sergio Perez to finish the most colourful races with each of them utilizing 4 completely different compound throughout the Monaco Grand Prix. The American driver used all three dry climate compound, beginning the race on the mediums earlier than switching to the hards and the softs and ending the 78-lap race on the intermediates.
The Mexican racer began the race on the yellow-banded medium earlier than switching to the hards at the finish of the opening lap. He then switched to intermediates earlier than choosing the full moist climate tyres, however he ended the races on the green-sided intermediates.
Scrubbed units – While drivers used model new tyres for his or her varied stint all through the Monaco spherical, the two Aston Martin drivers Fernando Alonso and Lance Stroll began their race on a scrubbed set of onerous compound with this process normally pursued to assist drivers to have the ability to change on the tyres on the opening lap.
Deleted laps – The governing physique was pressured to delete a complete of 31 laps all through the Monaco Grand Prix with drivers having didn’t comply with the observe limits at Turn 1, 10, 11 and 16.
Williams driver Alexander Albon failed to stick to the observe limits with exceeding the limits on 5 events. However, Esteban Ocon, Pierre Gasly, Nico Hulkenberg, Lando Norris, Carlos Sainz, Logan Sargeant, Nyck de Vries, Kevin Magnussen, Lewis Hamilton, Fernando Alonso, George Russell and Zhou Guanyu had all lap instances deleted throughout the 78-lap race.
The undesirable title – There are solely two drivers who’re but to attain any factors this season. AlphaTauri’s Nyck de Vries scored a degree on his debut eventually yr’s Italian Grand Prix in Monza when he stepped in for Alexander Albon, however he has not scored any factors but for the Faenza-based outfit in his first full F1 season. The Monaco Grand Prix was successful although as he displayed promising pace throughout the weekend and secured his greatest race end with a P12.
Commenting on his weekend, de Vries stated: “Overall, I’m happy with my weekend, no main errors in difficult circumstances. It was encouraging to see that we have been so near the prime 10, and we labored properly as a workforce all through the weekend to place the automobiles the place they have been on the grid, so we’ll take these positives to Barcelona.”
Fellow rookie driver Logan Sargeant can be but so as to add factors to his title after ending down in P18 in Monaco. The late difficult climate circumstances examined the American’s expertise as he has hardly acquired any operating on moist observe in the present F1 automobiles in 2023.
Fastest pit cease – Red Bull weren’t solely the quickest when it got here to outright tempo round Monaco, however the Milton Keynes-based outfit was the quickest in the pit lane as properly. The Austrian-Anglo squad wanted solely 2.15s to service Sergio Perez throughout one in every of his stops. However, Ferrari have been solely a tiny bit slower with the Scuderia mounting new tyres on Charles Leclerc’s automotive inside 2.24s. The third quickest workforce in the pit lane was Aston Martin courtesy of a pit cease for Fernando Alonso which lasted 2.47s.
Unsafe rejoin – In the late rain climate chaos, Mercedes driver George Russell spun into the runoff at Turn 5, then rejoined the observe in an unsafe method immediately in entrance of Sergio Perez with the incident inflicting a collision. The FIA stewards handed out a five-second time penalty and two penalty factors on his license which sees Russell improve his penalty models to 6 factors in the 12-month interval.
However, the time penalty didn’t impact Russell’s race end result as Charles Leclerc, who was the subsequent driver behind, was over ten seconds adrift of the Mercedes driver. The extra major problem for Russell was that he may have benefitted from a late name to intermediate tyre for Carlos Sainz and a sluggish cease for Esteban Ocon with the Briton throwing away a doable podium end along with his mistake.
The quickest lap – Although it was not a lap document, Lewis Hamilton was completely happy to attain an extra championship level along with his quickest lap at the Monaco Grand Prix. The Briton set a lap time of 1m15.650s to document the quickest race lap, nevertheless it was nonetheless virtually three seconds off the greatest race lap ever round Monte Carlos which additionally belongs to the seven-time world champion.
Speeding in the pit lane – Nowadays, it’s fairly uncommon {that a} driver will get over the pace restrict in the pit lane throughout a race. However, it occurred to Ferrari’s Carlos Sainz in Miami two weeks in the past, and now it was Logan Sargeant who failed to remain under 60kph in the tight Monaco pit lane. The American exceeded the restrict by 0.7kph which noticed him earn a five-second time penalty.
Interestingly, his teammate Alexander Albon was additionally caught with the similar infringement, albeit the Thai driver failed to stick to the pace restrict throughout the reconnaissance laps. In reality, he solely exceeded the restrict by 0.1kph, nevertheless it was sufficient for him to earn a advantageous of €100.
Huge blow – After arriving neck and neck in Monaco in the combat for the championship title , Sergio Perez endured an enormous blow to his championship aspiration resulting from his mistake in the qualifying session. The Mexican stated that “it was the worst weekend I can remember in a while; everything went wrong and today we paid the price for a poor mistake from myself in qualifying. I am really sad about the performance, not just today but the whole weekend. I knew yesterday would be extremely costly and ultimately it was 25 points.”
In reality, Perez’s mistake enabled his teammate Max Verstappen to flee in the Drivers’ Championship with the Dutchman now sitting atop with 144 factors, having fun with a snug margin of 39 factors forward of the Mexican.
Courtesy of his sensible begin to the season, Fernando Alonso occupies third place in the standings, adopted by the Mercedes duo of Lewis Hamilton and George Russell whereas the Ferrari pair of Carlos Sainz and Charles Leclerc sit in P6 and P7 in the championship. Lance Stroll, Esteban Ocon, Pierre Gasly and Lando Norris are the solely different drivers with a two-digit level tally.
