Untouchable. In the sun and then in the rain, Max Verstappen masterfully dominated the Monaco Grand Prix, the seventh round of the F1 season. The Dutchman had signed his first pole in the Principality on Saturday and he validated the test on Sunday leading the race from start to finish. His 39th career success and already the fourth this season. Fernando Alonso (Aston Martin) and Esteban Ocon (Alpine) complete the podium.
Usually chaotic, the start was princely calm in this 2023 edition of the Monaco GP. On pole, Max Verstappen therefore took the lead and launched his long Sunday parade, a habit this season. Quickly, Fernando Alonso proved to be the only one to limit the damage but after twenty laps, the Spaniard was already relegated to more than ten seconds and Esteban Ocon, 3rd, was already sailing more than twenty seconds. The Red Bull is untouchable and it confirms it weekend after weekend. For 50 laps, Max Verstappen then managed his medium tires at the head of the race waiting for the rain which came to wreak havoc from lap 51.
For our greatest happiness, we are not going to hide it. Solid second, Fernando Alonso then made a mistake, with no consequences in the end, by putting on medium tires when it was necessary to use intermediate ones because the rain was getting worse. A lap later, he returned to the pits for the intermediates. What Alpine had perfectly anticipated. Esteban Ocon then dove on lap 54 to put the intermediates. A paying choice because it allowed the Frenchman to keep his place on the podium and to get ahead of the Mercedes of Lewis Hamilton (4th) and George Russell (5th) who had also anticipated the intermediaries. Third at the finish behind Verstappen and Alonso, the Norman launched his season and that of the French brand. He finds the podium for the third time in his career after his second place at Sakhir in 2020 and his victory in Hungary in 2021.
In the world championship, the case is magnificent for Max Verstappen who scores 25 points while Sergio Perez, five stops on the clock on Sunday and only 17th, leaves Monaco with 0 points. 39 points now separate the two Red Bull drivers.
