Race winner Max Verstappen of the Netherlands and Oracle Red Bull Racing celebrates with his team after the F1 Grand Prix of Monaco at Circuit de Monaco on May 28, 2023 in Monte-Carlo, Monaco. (Photo: Mark Thompson/Getty Images)
MONACO – The streets of Monaco were once again filled with the noises of Formula 1 as the schedule headed to the principality in Europe after what should’ve been the race in Imola the week prior. The prestigious streets start off a full day of motorsports which includes the Monaco Grand Prix, the Indianapolis 500 and the Coca-Cola 600.
In the lead-up to the race, teams brought upgrades that were highlighted by the Mercedes AMG team. Mercedes, who has been a bit on the back foot with the change in regulations last year, changed the underside of the car and re-added side pods to the design which they hope can claw back some of the lost ground that they’ve been in.
Grand Prix practices for the weekend showed what could be a close weekend. In Free Practice 1, it looked like Mercedes’ upgrades were coming to fruition as Lewis Hamilton brought in the third fastest time of the day behind Aston Martin’s Fernando Alonso and Ferrari’s Carlos Sainz.
Free Practice 2 showed a close battle between Red Bull Racing’s Max Verstappen, who topped the timing sheets, and Ferrar’s Charles Leclerc trading times. Free Practice had both Red Bull drivers of Verstappen and Sergio Perez lead the way with Alonso following in behind.
However, the cranes took a lot of the story for Saturday before qualifying ended.
First up, in FP3, Hamilton wrecked, and because of how tight Monaco is, cranes are used to lift the cars off the ground and out of the way, giving everyone an early view of their new upgrades. Then while in the opening round of qualifying, Perez found himself in the wall and had to be raised up on the crane, giving everyone a view of the underside of the powerful Red Bull.
Once Perez crashed in round 1 of Qualifying, which meant there was a little bit more to play for in the later rounds. Alfa Romeo’s Zhou Guanyu and AlphaTauri’s Yuki Tsunoda both had some time at the top of the timing sheets before more and more drivers took time. By the end of the session, Zhou, William’s Logan Sargeant, the Haas duo of Nico Hulkenberg, and Kevin Magnussen joined Perez for not making it into Q2.
Round 2 of Qualifying was a close battle between Verstappen, Alonso, and Leclerc vying for the provisional pole in the second round. McLaren’s Lando Norris provided a bit of excitement as he got the wall damaging his suspension which meant that while he made the final round, his team would have to work hard to fix the damage to have a chance to complete a lap. Norris’ teammate Oscar Piastri, AlphaTauri’s Nyck De Vries, Williams’ Alex Albon, Aston Martin’s Lance Stroll (who messed up and got a penalty for missing the Weigh Bridge during his last run) and Alfa Romeo’s Valtteri Bottas all missed Q3.
The show of the weekend was the third and final round of qualifying. Verstappen was the first driver to hit the track and set a respectable time to take the provisional pole, but it was quickly smashed by Alonso. Verstappen, running a second lap went ahead then Alpine’s Esteban Ocon shocked everyone by taking provisional pole.
Leclerc then put in an amazing lap to put him in line for a hat trick of Monaco Grand Prix poles, but that was quickly dashed by a quick lap from Alonso to take back the provisional pole. That lasted only a handful of seconds as Max Verstappen put on a flier of a final second to take his first P1 on the streets of Monaco.
Meanwhile, Leclerc was penalized three positions due to impeding Norris, causing him to lose his third starting position, setting up a bit of a jumbled field for the Grand Prix.
Race day finally made it and there was a threat of rain in the air. The field was split between Hard tires and Medium tires, with pole sitter Verstappen starting off with Mediums and Alonso alongside him starting with the Hard tires with about an even split through the rest of the field. While there was a threat of rain, there wasn’t a complete consensus for when it would hit.
The lights went out and away they went as Verstappen scampered away with little worry with Alonso following. There was a little bit of a mess in the Grand Hotel Harpin. Hulkenberg locked up going into Mirabeau bumping into Sargeant and Stroll got into Albon. Otherwise, the field largely survived.
Meanwhile, upfront, Verstappen held a steady pace ahead of Alonso while they both had completely dropped Ocon in an ever-growing gap. Around the time the pit-stop window opened up for the Medium tire runners, they had a pit-stop gap to Ocon in third place, but it would be a while before they pitted.
Ocon had created a little bit of a conga line holding up the progress of the two Mercedes drivers and two Ferrari drivers, which meant an attempt to undercut. Unfortunately, the undercut didn’t work and the field stayed just about the same, all while Verstappen kept moving his way through traffic.
Max Verstappen of the Netherlands driving the (1) Oracle Red Bull Racing RB19 on track during the F1 Grand Prix of Monaco at Circuit de Monaco on May 28, 2023 in Monte-Carlo, Monaco. (Photo: Ryan Pierse/Getty Images)
Verstappen kept going on Medium tires, pushing 40, then 45, and finally 50 laps before the rain showed up, hoping to play strategy battling against Alonso and his strategy and the incoming weather.
Then, the rain started to fall more and more and teams were starting to make a switch to Intermediate tires. Aston Martin called Alonso in, but instead of following the rest of the field, they pitted him for Medium tires. However, that wasn’t the best call to make. The rain picked up and Red Bull called in Verstappen to finally pit him after 55 laps on Medium Tires and put him on a set of Intermediates to handle the ever-soaking track.
Aston Martin called Alonso back in for Intermediates, but it was too late, Verstappen had the field in control.
While the rain was falling, the ever-expected chaos began. Drivers went off into runoff areas, a bit more contact between drivers, and more pieces of cars went flying. Ferrari had to double-stack in the increasing rain, which allowed both Mercedes drivers to get an extra jump. Meanwhile, Mercedes’ George Russell was handed a five second penalty for an unsafe rejoin to the track after going long into a run-off area and running into Perez.
But as things stabilized, Verstappen continue to grow a lead that he wouldn’t relinquish. Picking up his 39th win of his career, Verstappen grabbed his second victory on the streets of Monaco. Alonso cruised his way into 2nd place, picking up his fifth podium in six rounds.
Ocon, picking up Driver of the Day, came home for his third career podium. Meanwhile, the Mercedes pair of Hamilton and Russell closed out the Top 5.
Leclerc, Alpine’s Pierre Gasly, and Sainz all crossed the line together and the two McLaren drivers of Norris and Piastri both closed out the Top 10 and points-paying positions.
Verstappen’s victory was a statement win for his title defense. Perez’s not-great day allowed Verstappen to grow his lead as the series moves into a long stretch of races. The series heads to Spain next week and questions of if Verstappen will continue to extend his lead in the championship and if the Mercedes upgrades will lead to a turn in the tides will be answered and more.
