Rain to help – Kommersant
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“Formula 1”
Max Verstappen wins the Monaco Grand Prix. The current world champion was in the lead from the first to the last meter of the distance, and his main rival was the rain, which slightly cheered up the traditionally unbearably boring stage. Second place went to Fernando Alonso. For the Spaniard, this is the best result since moving to Aston Martin. The third was Esteban Ocon. Actually, the winners started in this order.
The Monaco Grand Prix is still considered something of a diamond in the Formula 1 crown, but every year there are more and more questions about the meaning of the presence of this stage in the calendar. Fans have long resigned themselves to the fact that overtaking, and for the sake of them, presumably, there are races, happens here extremely rarely and treat this stage more as an occasion for a long party than as a real sporting event. But now the bosses of the teams have also begun to complain about the Monaco Grand Prix, and not just some supernumerary ones. Red Bull boss Christian Hornen said that if the decision to include the race in Monte Carlo on the calendar was made now, the teams would never agree to compete there, and called for something to be done with the track, which is almost impossible to overtake. A vivid example of this is the case of Sergio Perez in Monaco. Number two Red Bull in qualifying crashed the car and started from last place. On any other track, this would not prevent the Mexican from breaking into at least the top 10, and on some even the top 3. But then he got stuck and ended up only 16th.
It can be assumed that Horner knows something, that the bosses of the series from the American Liberty really think what to do with the Monaco Grand Prix, but for now, the riders have to rely primarily on a successful qualification, followed by a not particularly problematic retention of the obtained position in the race. Fernando Alonso held this qualification more beautifully than others. The Spanish veteran made a brilliant, almost perfect circle. But he became only the second. Max Verstappen drove his decisive attempt in the best case for a four. But Red Bull is so much better than all other cars that the Dutchman had enough of it. The third was Esteban Ocon from Alpine. By the way, the French team brought a big upgrade package to Monaco, and it seems to be working. An even more solid set of new products was brought by the Mercedes team, whose cars have now become as “cheeky” as everyone else (it was decided to abandon the unsuccessful non-pontoon layout), but the team immediately warned that Monaco is not the track where you can at least do something. then understand about innovations. Looking ahead, we can say that in general, everything went well for Mercedes: the fourth and fifth places of Lewis Hamilton and George Russell for Mercedes in its current state are a normal result.
As for the race itself, the main role was played in it not by one of the racers, but by rain. It took him a long time to get ready, and even before he finally went to reality, he gave the stage some kind of intrigue. Verstappen was nervous, realizing that pitting before Alonso, if it happened before it got wet, could lead to the need to stop again (for shoes in rain tires) and cost the race win. Overtaking, as already mentioned, in Monaco is almost impossible even at the wheel of Red Bull. Alonso himself was nervous, not understanding what tactics to choose. They were nervous at Ferrari, where even on calm days they sometimes get lost in their countless plans, but here they finally got confused and brought to the point that they were forced to change the shoes of the cars of Charles Leclerc and Carlos Sainz in the double pit stop mode.
Well, when it did start raining, it turned out that he did it exactly one lap after Alonso, tired of waiting (the rubber on his car was already barely alive), dived for a new set of slicks. Considering the chosen time, it seems that it was some kind of special Dutch rain. After all, he removed all the problems for Verstappen. Alonso was forced to return to the pits for rain tires, which gave Verstappen the opportunity to calmly change shoes and have full control of the race. Only he himself could prevent the Dutchman. And a couple of times he was inches away from it, too dashing, with the scratching of the fence, passing the turns. But the car did not get irreparable damage, and Verstappen won. For him, this is the fourth victory of the season. Given the failure of Perez, the gap between Verstappen and the nearest pursuer is already 39 points.
As for Fernando Alonso, he can be congratulated on the best result during his performances for Aston Martin, that is, since the beginning of the season. Five times in a row the Spaniard was third. Now visited the second. The next logical step is to win the race. But the double world champion will have a chance for it only if both Red Bull drivers, and only they won the stages this season, simultaneously fail for some reason.
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