Verstappen wins rain-affected Monaco GP

Max Verstappen clipped the barrier several times and had to hold on to the lead in wet conditions, but he did enough to secure victory at the Monaco Grand Prix.

While the weather caused chaos late in the race, the top three on the grid all retained their positions to finish on the podium, with Fernando Alonso second and Alpine’s Esteban Ocon completing the top three.

There was bumping on the opening lap as Nico Hulkenberg, Logan Sargeant and Lance Stroll all made contact, resulting in damage for the latter, while Hulkenberg was given a 5-second time penalty.

Sergio Perez came in at the end of the opening lap to switch onto the hard tyre, hoping a different strategy would help him make amends after crashing in qualifying, leaving him at the back of the grid for today’s race.

Carlos Sainz tried to force his way ahead of Ocon to move up into the podium places, but the mistimed move saw him damage his front wing.

Midway through the race, the drivers started to be warned that rain could hit the circuit before the end of the race, resulting in some staying out longer than expected in case they needed to switch onto wet tyres.

Further down the field, Perez tried to find a way past Stroll, and attempted the follow his teammate past the Canadian when Verstappen lapped the Aston Martin, but the two touched and Perez went through the chicane.

A couple of laps later, Perez ran into the back of Kevin Magnussen, allowing Stroll to retake the place, while the Red Bull driver had to come into the pits for a new front wing.

Stroll also hit the back of the Haas as he tried to make a move past Magnussen, but didn’t need to come in.

With just over 15 laps remaining, the rain hit the circuit, leaving those on well worn tyres struggling to find grip.

Valtteri Bottas and Stroll were the first to switch onto the intermediate tyre, with others soon following.

Alonso was the first of the front runners to come in, but despite his teammate having already switched onto the inters, the two-time champion chose to switch onto a new set of slicks.

The rain continued to get heavier, forcing Alonso to come into the pits again and switch onto inters, but he had enough of an advantage that he was able to hold on to second.

Stroll’s day came to an end when he ran out of grip, twice hitting the wall and breaking his front wing, while Magnussen broke his front wing running wide on his way to the pits.

George Russell also had to use the run off area, but rejoined the track in front of Perez, earning the Mercedes driver a five-second time penalty for rejoining unsafely, as well as a tap from the Red Bull.

Hulkenberg picked up a second penalty, this time for 10 seconds, having been found not to have served his five-second penalty correctly when coming in for intermediate tyres.

Magnussen was the second retiree of the race, coming into the pits late on after sustaining too much damage to continue.

Provisional classification:

1 Max Verstappen (Red Bull)

2. Fernando Alonso (Aston Martin)

3. Esteban Ocon (Alpine)

4. Lewis Hamilton (Mercedes)

5. George Russell (Mercedes)

6. Charles Leclerc (Ferrari)

7. Pierre Gasly (Alpine)

8. Carlos Sainz (Ferrari)

9. Lando Norris (McLaren)

10. Oscar Piastri (McLaren)

11. Valtteri Bottas (Alfa Romeo)

12. Nyck DeVries (AlphaTauri)

13. Guanyu Zhou (Alfa Romeo)

14. Alex Albon (Williams)

15. Yuki Tsunoda (AlphaTauri)

16. Nico Hulkenberg (Haas)

17. Sergio Perez (Red Bull)

18. Logan Sargeant (Williams)

DNF:

Kevin Magnussen (Haas)

Lance Stroll (Aston Martin)