Max Verstappen claimed his fourth win of the season at a rain-affected Monaco GP to extend world championship lead to 39 points; Verstappen tapped the barriers at Portier when trying to negotiate wet track when still on dry tyres; Christian Horner explains why team had felt 'on the ropes'
Monday 29 May 2023 10:42, UK
Max Verstappen has claimed hitting the wall in the rain at Portier ended up helping him go on and take victory at the Monaco GP.
The Dutchman picked up his fourth win of F1 2023 - and a record 39th for Red Bull - to extend his championship lead to 39 points over team-mate Sergio Perez, who finished 16th.
Verstappen's win was complicated by heavy rain arriving with 25 laps remaining, and the Dutchman found himself tapping the barriers as he tiptoed round the right-hand corners of Portier before being able to pit for intermediate tyres.
And Verstappen said the wall had helped prevent him from spinning out from the lead.
"I locked the rears and I couldn't get out of it, so it's just trying to control it with a bit of drifting," Verstappen said.
"Luckily the wall in a way stopped it from sliding even more."
Verstappen would ultimately go on to claim victory by nearly 28 seconds from Fernando Alonso, his winning margin helped by the Aston Martin driver stopping for dry tyres a lap before the rain deluge hit Monte Carlo and forcing Alonso to immediately make a second stop.
On paper the result looks like another dominant win for Verstappen and Red Bull, but the two-time world champion admitted it had been a "hectic" race.
"First of all because of the chance of rain we couldn't do the strategy we wanted to do, we had to stay out almost double the amount of laps we'd have liked on the medium," Verstappen told Sky Sports F1.
"That was a big challenge because I had to go through that graining phase and then the tyres started to pick up again.
"That's what I really needed as we planned for like 30 laps and I did 55. It was not the easiest and also balance from left to right was very different.
"Then it started to rain and on very worn tyres it was very difficult, I clipped a few barriers - I just had no grip. Even on the intermediates it was super slippery and it took a few laps to feel comfortable."
Monaco was expected to be Red Bull's toughest test so far this season with the unique layout of the track not allowing the RB19's strengths to be maximised.
Verstappen was able to snatch pole position with a magical final sector on Saturday while his win continues Red Bull's 100 per cent win record in 2023.
But Red Bull boss Christian Horner said they had felt "on the ropes" over the weekend.
"I was nervous from about the moment the red light came on. When they pull the covers off and you see quite a few have gone on the hard tyre, you think 'okay, there's rain around, if they can go far enough, if the mediums degrade…' Horner told Sky Sports F1.
"The first thing was convert the start and Max did that and then it was about building a bit of a gap and getting a Safety Car window to the cars behind and then just try and hang it out and see what the weather does.
"We were on the ropes here. We knew coming into this weekend it was going to be our biggest challenge in the first half of the year here and the low-speed nature, playing to the strengths - we thought Ferrari would be the main opponent but Fernando has just been on fire all weekend, unbelievable."
Horner added: "All the races have the same points but this one means that little bit more. It's always so special to win here, everything is a bit unique here and the grid was completely nuts before the race. Big win, every driver wants this race on their CV."
Horner admitted Aston Martin's decision to put another set of dry tyres on Alonso's car had relieved the pressure on Red Bull having felt they had left it a lap too long to stop Verstappen from the lead.
"It's about the engineer working with the driver and trying to find the crossover. It felt as though we'd gone a lap too long before going onto the inter and had Fernando picked the inter it would have been much tighter and put more pressure on our pit stop," Horner said.
"Thankfully he took the slick tyre just as the rain was growing and at that point it was important Max didn't take any risks and got it to the pits.
"When you're the lead car you can only lose, you have nothing to gain. You've just got to try and work with the conditions - we have spotters out there, you're trying to look at the radar, looking at the crowd - and just trying to piece it together. The driver has the best knowledge of what's going on on the circuit."
Horner also encouraged Perez to try and bounce back from a difficult weekend, which had seen his chances of a win ended with his crash in qualifying on Saturday.
He said: "The team is operating at such a great level. There is such motivation in the team. It was a tough weekend for Checo, one for him to forget, but the great thing is quickly he can bounce back next weekend in Barcelona.
"We're six races in and there's so much racing to go, 16 to go. There's a long, long way and a lot of racing to do so we're just taking it one race at a time and trying to get the best out of every weekend."
Will Red Bull's winning run in F1 2023 continue at the Spanish GP? Watch all the action live on Sky Sports F1 from June 2-4 Get Sky Sports
