Unlike the last few Grands Prix in the principality that delivered only a handful of overtakes and very little entertainment, the 2023 Monaco Grand Prix was a pleasant surprise filled with both on- & off-track action. The race was obviously not filled with overtakes - thanks to the wide modern-day F1 cars and narrow streets - but it did have a few overtakes paired with other dramatic moments like collisions, scrapes against the barriers, strange strategy calls, changing weather, and so on.
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Despite the curveball thrown by rain in the latter half of the race, reigning champion Max Verstappen cruised to victory in his RB19 from pole, winning by nearly half a minute from the closest challenger, Fernando Alonso. Esteban Ocon converted his extraordinary qualifying performance which saw him start the race in P3 to a podium finish, fending off multiple challenges from the likes of Mercedes & Ferrari.
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Verstappen finished nearly half a minute ahead of Alonso.
Rain played a big factor in deciding the finishing order for places outside the top 3, as it started raining around the same time as hard tyre runners would be pitting for mediums. Verstappen, despite starting on medium tyres, held on for most part of the race and made his one and only pitstop for intermediate tyres after it had started raining. Alonso on the other hand gambled by putting on medium tyres despite the rain, and he had to make an additional pitstop to change over to intermediate tyres a few laps later. However, the leading pair was so far ahead of everyone else that despite an additional pitstop Alonso still came out in P2, ahead of Ocon.
Fernando Alonso gambled by pitting for dry tyres despite the imminent rain, but the gamble didn’t pay off limiting him to second.
Behind the podium finishers, a lot of drama unfolded as rain came into the picture. Both Carlos Sainz and George Russell made mistakes in the slippery conditions, with the former spinning around once and dropping a few positions. Russell also went off-track and rejoined the track unsafely, which saw him getting handed a 5-second time penalty. But Charles Leclerc couldn’t keep within 5 seconds of the Brit, and the penalty didn’t result in any dropped places for him. While Hamilton & Russell finished 4th & 5th putting Mercedes only 1 point behind Aston Martin in P2, Leclerc & Sainz could only manage P6 & P8 respectively. Ferrari is now 30 points behind Aston Martin and in P4.
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Home hero Charles Leclerc could only finish P6, after he was penalised by a 3-place grid drop post-qualifying.
While the race went just as planned for Verstappen, the same couldn’t be said for his teammate Perez. Crashing into the wall at Saint Devote in Q1, Perez started the race on P20 and could only improve to P16 despite his best efforts. Alonso’s teammate Stroll on the other hand managed to run in points for some time in the race. However multiple incidents on the track saw him lose positions, ultimately retiring from the race. Ocon’s teammate Pierre Gasly meanwhile impressed in P7, battling with the likes of the Ferrari & Mercedes drivers. McLaren drivers also drove well to wrap up the final points paying positions, winning hard fought battles with Yuki Tsunoda, who later went tumbling down the order due to a few lockups and flat-spotted tyres.
