Source – Marcia – Max leads the way in the standings after winning in Monaco
Monaco Grand Prix 2021 Review. Let’s take a look at what happened this year, around the streets of Monte Carlo…
Max and Red Bull lead the way…
Nobody would have expected quite how badly the weekend would have gone for Mercedes. With a successful history at this track, the German team were off their game this past weekend. Lewis Hamilton was stuck behind Pierre Gasly for the entire race, after a disasterous qualifying. Whereas in the sister car, Valtteri Bottas endured more bad luck when a broken wheel nut caused a botched pit stop, which in turn, ended his race prematurely. It was quite the contrast for the ‘raging bulls’. Max led comfortably for nearly the entire race and Checo made up 5 places to claim an impressive P4, at a track where this isn’t especially easy to do. With the lead in the Driver’s Championship standings, Verstappen will be keen to not give Lewis Hamilton an inch, next time out in Baku.
The contrast between Lando and Daniel…
It’s the same car! Lando Norris lapped Daniel Ricciardo in arguably the biggest surprise of the race. The Brit did drive fantastically and maturely, and deserved the P3 finish. Albeit with a slice of good fortune, McLaren was only behind Ferrari in terms of out and out pace at this circuit this season. So the struggles for the usually solid Danny Ricc are a mystery. A poor P12 finish, a lap behind his teammate, not the race the Australian would have wanted, especially having won this event previously.
The recurring Curse of Monte Carlo, for Charles…
Pole position came at the ultimate price for young Charles Leclerc this past weekend. At a venue where pole is so very usually decisive in the race winner, the local to Monaco was devasted as his unlucky home race record, continued. One of these days, the home town boy will win his beloved race, but the fact that he didn’t even start at all, is incredibly bad fortune. The worst thing for Charles is that, from nowhere, Ferrari had the fastest car and to see his Spanish compatriot Carlos Sainz stand on the podium, will have only rubbed salt into the wound.
Super effort gives Tony his first points of the season…
What a super drive from Giovinazzi. It seems like the Italian is finally coming into his own, with a stellar performance here. The young driver has had his critics in previous years but is proving all the doubters wrong with drives such as this. He is out-qualifying and out-pacing his veteran teammate regularly now and seems to be improving in confidence with each passing race. Definitely deserving points for his efforts in Monaco, the Italian will hope to push on in Azerbaijan next time out. Alfa Romeo really do deserve credit for sticking with this lineup whilst many other teams made changes.
Aston Martin finally coming into its own.
Seeing Seb Vettel finish P5 was a joyous sight. And with Lance Stroll also doing a superb long shift on his opening set of tyres, he too gained places. It was a great strategy from a team who have faltered at times so far this year. There is still quite a gap to the top four teams, the battle seemingly being for P5 in the Constructors Championship for now. At a track that could certainly do with one or two modifications to increase overtaking possibilites, Aston Martin showed that tactics can be just as effective in place gaining. If only we had seen that major moment, and not Lance Stroll bumping over a yellow kerb! Nice work Camera guy.
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Ricciardo will come good soon!
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Good nickname
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