Max Verstappen dominated from start to finish in winning the Monaco Grand Prix, but there was late drama as the sport’s most famous street circuit was hit by a deluge of rain.
The world champion produced a great lap to put his Red Bull on pole on Saturday, and it proved key as he made a trademark flying start ahead of Fernando Alonso in fabulous style before controlling the race to finish over 27 seconds ahead of the Spanish icon, who came second for the first time this year.
The race was spiced up by rain arriving slowly then heavily after lap 51 of 78, but Max Verstappen bolted on some intermediate tyres on lap 55 and progressed to secure his fourth win of the season and a 39th in total for the Dutchman in overtaking fellow world champion Sebastian Vettel’s career record haul at Red Bull.
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An hour and 50 minutes of dominant driving earned him his second victory in three years at the iconic track, quickly dismissing Alonso’s hopes of a third Monaco triumph, 16 years after his second.
The Dutchman leads the Drivers’ Championship by a daunting 39 points after only six rounds of the 22-race season.
“Very lovely that. That was a real Monaco,” said Verstappen after taking the chequered flag as the Circuit de Monaco slowly began to dry out.
“It was incredibly slippery and when you are that far in the lead, you don’t want to push too hard, but also you don’t want to lose too much time so it’s quite difficult in that scenario,” he said.
“I clipped the wall a few times and it was super difficult out there. But that’s Monaco.
“It’s super nice to win Monaco, and it’s super nice to win it in the way we did today with the weather and everything, to stay calm and bring it home.”
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France’s Esteban Ocon finished third in his Alpine for his first podium finish of the season, a further nine seconds behind Alonso in the Aston Martin.
“It was difficult and we started on the hard tyres, so gave up the possibility into Turn One,” said Alonso.
“We hoped to play the long game with the strategy, but Max Verstappen drove super well on the medium tyres to extend that first stint. We didn’t have any chance then the rain made things a bit complicated out there.”
Max Verstappen’s team-mate and closest rival in his world title quest, Sergio Perez, could only claim 16th spot after crashing out in qualifying and starting from the back of the grid.
He remains on 105 points with Verstappen’s win extending his total to 144.
Lewis Hamilton began the race in fifth, and made up one place to finish fourth in his Mercedes, which also included the fastest lap of the race to earn a bonus point.
The seventh round of the season is staged by the Circuit de Catalunya when Barcelona hosts the Spanish Grand Prix (June 2-4) and Max Verstappen is seemingly perfectly poised to continue his relentless push for a third straight world triumph.
Final standings
- Max Verstappen, Red Bull – 25 points
- Fernando Alonso, Aston Martin – 18 points
- Esteban Ocon, Alpine – 15 points
- Lewis Hamilton, Mercedes – 13 points
- George Russell, Mercedes – 10 points
- Charles Leclerc, Ferrari – 8 points
- Pierre Gasly, Alpine – 6 points
- Carlos Sainz, Ferrari – 4 points
- Lando Norris, McLaren – 2 points
- Oscar Piastri, McLaren – 1 point
