Sergio Perez has taken his first Formula 1 race victory of the 2022 season after prevailing at the Monaco Grand Prix.
The race didn’t complete its full distance, with a clock countdown used to signal the end of the grand prix rather than a lap count following several delays during the afternoon.
Carlos Sainz crossed the line in second place for Ferrari, while championship leader Max Verstappen was third for Red Bull, extending his lead at the top of the standings.
Pole-sitter Charles Leclerc saw his day unravelled by strategy, with hopes of a home victory dashed.
The Monegasque driver ended the race in fourth place, ahead of George Russell who continues his run of top-five finishes in 2022.
Rain causes chaos but Perez benefits
Rainfall just minutes before the start of the formation lap saw the session delayed, and after a tour of the circuit behind the Safety Car, Race Control opted to deploy the red flag and postpone the start of the grand prix.
Over an hour later the race resumed and a rolling start was declared, with the field running on full Wet tyres.
On lap 17, Perez, who was running in third place, decided to make a pit stop for Intermediate tyres, and by the time Ferrari reacted with Leclerc, Perez had moved ahead of him.
Leclerc came back into the pit lane a couple of laps later, as did team-mate Carlos Sainz, who went straight from Wet tyres to slicks.
Verstappen too jumped Leclerc through the pits, demoting the Ferrari man down to fourth place with just over 20 laps completed.
Schumacher crash causes another red flag
A second red flag was deployed before the lap 30 mark, after Mick Schumacher suffered a sizeable crash at the Piscine corner.
The car dramatically split in two, however Schumacher was able to walk away from the collision unaided.
When the race resumed after the barrier had been repaired, Perez led the pack, equipped with a fresh set of Medium tyres.
While team-mate Verstappen too chose to fit new Medium tyres, both Ferrari’s remained on the Hard compound that they were using prior to Schumacher’s crash.
The four cars ran close together in the remaining laps, but Sainz couldn’t launch an attack on Perez, leaving the Mexican to secure his third career F1 win.
Norris almost takes fifth but secures fastest lap
Norris opted to make a pit stop with 15 minutes remaining in the race, as he had the margin over Fernando Alonso in seventh place.
After the resumption of the race following the second red flag, Alonso dropped his pace, with Norris soon running half a minute in front of the Alpine driver.
The fresh tyres in the final laps secured the Briton the fastest lap, however he almost overtook Russell for fifth, closing in on the Mercedes pilot during the final moments.
With Norris sixth, Alonso was seventh ahead of Lewis Hamilton, who recorded his worst result in Monaco since the 2009 edition of the race.
Esteban Ocon was ninth, but a time penalty for a collision with Hamilton earlier in the race demoted him outside of the top 10.
Benefitting from Ocon’s punishment was Valtteri Bottas, who moved up to ninth, while Sebastian Vettel took the final point on offer for Aston Martin.
[motorsport_result id=’86465′]
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