the dutch max verstappen (Red Bull) consolidated its lead in the Formula 1 World Cup after winning this Sunday quite comfortably in the Monaco Grand Prixsixth test of the season, ahead of the Spanish Fernando Alonso (Aston Martin), who achieved his best result of the season.
There was not excessive emotion in the streets of the Principality, a layout where there is usually none. Not even the madness unleashed by the appearance at one point in the rain had any effect on the fight for victory or the podium, where the top three qualifying finishers climbed.
The inrush of the water did not even alter a Verstappen dominant from start to finish and who always had a great advantage over the Spaniard, who also did not have excessive problems to secure second place, nor was he even worried about a mistake in the choice of tires when it rained that did not bring any safety car or relevant accidents in a Big prize only with one abandonment, that of the Canadian Lance Strollthe worst news for Aston Martin.
Anyway, Alonso also made no mistakes and added a new podium with Aston Martin to match the 103 of the Finn Kimi raikkonen to approach the second place of the Mexican Sergio Checo Perez (Red Bull), who started last and could not come back on a track where it is almost impossible to overtake to finish sixteenth. Things didn’t go well either. Carlos Sainz (Ferrari), who in a circuit where he usually has good results and despite starting fourth, was penalized for his team’s strategy and then it was almost impossible for him to recover positions.
As I had warned alonso, was not excessively aggressive in the always important start in Monaco. Verstappen, who opted for the medium tyre, did not fail either and maintained his position ahead of the Spaniard, who shod his AMR23 with the hard ones, with the Frenchman Esteban Ocon (Alpine) also being ‘calm’ and with Sainz also defending his fourth position to lead the traditional ‘train‘ of cars through the Monegasque streets.
The pilots left knowing that there was a threat of rain on the radar, the only thing that could add something of ‘spicy‘ to Sunday because the current champion soon opened a big gap, like the Oviedo with the rest. Sainz tried it with Oconbut at the cost of losing a piece of the front wing without consequences, while Alonso also gave a scare when he warned his ‘box‘ of some strange behavior of your car.
The two-time world champion could again be a threat to Verstappen when he ran into the first stragglers and got to just over five seconds. A mirage because Red Bull dominated again when it found clean air, while behind it, Ferrari sent Sainz to the pits, causing his anger for reducing his chances for the podium, although from the Prancing Horse his objective was more to protect him of lewis hamilton.
Finally, the threat of rain made an appearance, although its impact did not go beyond the entrance en masse to change tires. Alonso did it and surprised by putting some means, ineffective when the water fell with more force, which forced him to enter again. His advantage over the rest did not jeopardize his second place, although he squandered any chance to threaten Verstappen.
With the track complicated, Sainz tried in every way to overtake Ocon, but he held on and the man from Madrid spun which ended up weighing him down along with a new entry into the pits.
The champion had a quiet finish to win in Monaco for the second time in his career and Alonso did not suffer either to add a second place that he had not achieved since 2014 with Ferrari in Hungary. Verstappen already has 34 points over Checo, his teammate, who in turn leads the Spaniard by 12 points.
