Sergio Perez won an incident-packed, wet-dry Monaco Grand Prix after his Red Bull team outfoxed rivals Ferrari.
The Mexican rose from third to the lead during a part of the race in wet conditions after the start was delayed for an hour after a downpour of rain.
Red Bull’s strategy also vaulted Max Verstappen from fourth to third, behind Ferrari’s Carlos Sainz, but ahead of the Dutchman’s title rival Charles Leclerc.
As a result, Verstappen extended his championship lead to nine points.
Perez, meanwhile, is only six points behind Leclerc, after a strong weekend in which he outpaced Verstappen in qualifying and drove superbly in the race to deliver on Red Bull’s improvisational strategy calls.
Leclerc, so outstanding in taking pole position on Saturday, was left ruing strategy blunders by Ferrari as he saw a comfortable lead turn into fourth place within the space of just four laps.
After the race was red-flagged for a second time after 30 laps because of a heavy crash by Mick Schumacher’s Haas at the Swimming Pool section of the track, Leclerc asked whether they would run to the end from their current positions.
When told they would, knowing the difficulty of overtaking in Monaco, Leclerc, voice heavy with sarcasm, said: “Oh, perfect.”
The top four were nose to tail for the final 10 minutes – as the delayed race had to be called after 64 of the scheduled 77 laps because of time restrictions in the rules – but Perez held on from Sainz, Verstappen and Leclerc. (BBC Sport)
