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F1 Monaco Grand Prix LIVE RESULTS: Perez WINS after holding off Sainz as fuming Leclerc suffers pit stop chaos
SERGIO PEREZ won the Monaco Grand Prix as he capitalised on a flawed Ferrari pit stop strategy to hold off Carlos Sainz.
Initial race leader Charles Leclerc was told to stay out on track by Ferrari when he was already in the pit lane, causing him to be overtaken by Perez, Sainz and title rival Max Verstappen.
Mexican Perez then managed to hold Sainz off in the final laps to secure a famous race win.
Keep up to date with all of the action below...
- TV/ live stream: Sky Sports F1
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Session has restarted
But what a mess in the pitlane. The majority of drivers are going to miss out on the chance to improve their lap times.
That spells bad news for Schumacher and Bottas, who were the last out.
Red Flag - Session stopped
Somewhat ludicrous as the race steward has stopped the session for what seems to be Tsunoda hitting a barrier.
That said, the AlphaTauri man was still able to carry on and has made it back to the pits.
Seems like an over reaction from the FIA in that instance, but safety first and all that...
Tight at the top
Not too much to separate the Ferraris and Red Bulls at the top but at the bottom, Ricciardo is under pressure. Norris too in danger.
Vettel in the danger zone
The four-time world champion is currently in 16th place in the the bottom five.
He could be eliminated here from qualifying at the first hurdle.
Qualifying for the Monaco GP is go
The battel for P1 has the green light and it is already a busy track. Ferrari are the last cars out but are both now joining the action.
Leclerc on Monaco as race destination
Charles Leclerc is adamant that F1 races should still be held in his native Monaco.
The Ferrari driver was pipped to victory at FP3 on Saturday by Sergio Perez.
But he insists Monaco is a good destination for races, saying: "F1 has some historic tracks like Silverstone and Monza - and Monaco too - and they should stay on the calendar.
It would be a bad move for both parties [to remove Monaco]. I have never known Monaco without F1 apart from COVID reasons in 2020, and F1 without Monaco for me is not F1.
Monaco is one of the best tracks out there, in terms of qualifying there are no places I enjoy as much as here, where the driver can make as much difference."
Traffic hold up
There was a few traffic incidents in the practice session.
Max Verstappen being held up by Guanyu Zhou.
Sergio Perez blocked George Russell, and two incidents involving Carlos Sainz also caught the stewards’ attention.
Sainz's issues involved Aston Martin drivers Lance Stroll and Sebastian Vettel.
Perez denies Leclerc a clean sweep
Ferrari ace Charles Leclerc was denied a clean sweep by Red Bull's Sergio Perez in Saturday's practice session.
Leclerc was the quickest in both practice sessions on Friday.
And he looked set to clinch his third win in a row before Perez pipped him right at the race's climax.
Hamilton on title and retirement
Lewis Hamilton has admitted that it's unlikely that he'll win the F1 title this season.
But he vowed to carry on racing until he can no longer do so physically.
He said: "I probably won't win the title, but I feel the same pleasure of competing as when I started. Why should I stop? Maybe one day I won't be able to take the pressure anymore, I'll be tired, but that day hasn't come yet.”
FP3 is done - Perez tops the timesheets
The Mexican takes the top spot in the final session with a time of 1:12.476.
Leclerc is second quickest just 0.041s behind him and Sainz in third 0.370 behind the Red Bull man.
Verstappen is fourth, Gasly fifth, Norris sixth, Hamilton seventh, Magnussen eighth, Russell ninth and Alonso tenth.
Stroll hits the barriers
His Aston Martin is damaged but he is able to make it to the pits for a front wing change.
I know he's the owner's son, but he must surely have to start delivering soon, surely...
Vettel and Sainz have a near miss
The German is not happy by the Ferrari man's driving. He delivers an expletive-laden message over the team's radio.
The incident has been noted by the FIA and the Spanish driver could be in for a penalty.
Merc's woes continue
Russell in 10th and Hamilton in 13th clearly shows they still have no resolved their performance issues.
Hamilton complained yesterday of the bumping - not just from his car but caused by the poor resurfacing.
But of course, all the other drivers too have to experience it, so why is it so bad for Mercedes?
He's now having a crack at some fast laps, but he's run in to a lot of traffic.
Lap times dropping
We are getting closer to the pole time of last year, as Leclerc gets down to 1:12.885. How low can we go in qualifying with these new, wider, heavier cars?
Leclerc sets the benchmark
The Ferrari man has been on it all weekend. He was quickest in FP1 and FP2.
He's just set the top time for FP3 but we are still just 15 minutes in to this one hour session.
Sainz is in P2 and Verstappen in P3 in the usual tussle between the trio.
FP3 is Go
Green light in the pitlane and the cars file out on track. Latifi, Magnussen, Vettel and Schumacher are the first on track.
Track temperature is 51.8 degrees, so let's see how those tyres hold up. All three on mediums apart from Vettel, who is on hards.
Another beautiful day in Monte Carlo
We are just minutes away from final practice ahead of qualifying for the Monaco GP.
This is an important session to dial in the cars ahead of the THE most important qualifying of the year.
This race is likely to be a procession, so pole position is the key. Starting at the front obviously means you have the best chance of winning the race.
Big question here will be, have Mercedes made changed to Hamilton and Russell's Merc that will enable them to fight for pole?
P2 is over - Leclerc tops the timesheets
The Ferrari man repeats his achievement from FP1 and sets the quickest time of the session, which was delayed after a crash for Ricciardo.
Sainz is second in a Ferrari one-two while Perez and Verstappen take places three and four.
Norris is fifth quickest in an encouraging performance for the McLaren man while Russell continues to dominate his teammate.
Hamilton was not happy and had to settle for a lowly 12th place in the second practice pecking order.
Final 10 minutes
Leclerc is going out for his final few laps of this session on the quicker soft tyres.
He remains the quickest man on track ahead of Sainz. Perez in P3 and Verstappen in P4 as Ferrari and then Red Bull lead the way.
Norris sits in fifth, his teammate Daniel Ricciardo is out of the session after crashing midway through it.
It gets worse for Hamilton...
In his desperation to play catch up, Hamilton now locks up at the Mirabeau chicane.
He goes off track and ruins his tyres. He's kept his car going and has now made it back to the pits, but something is clearly not working for him.
Leclerc leads the way
For the briefest of moments it was Verstappen who topped the leaderboard but he has been replaced by Leclerc, who regains P1 with a lap time of 1:12.764 seconds.
Sainz is now in P2 a 0.302s behind and then the Red Bull duo of Verstappen and Perez.
Russell in P5 but Hamilton is way down in 10th place, as he again struggles to match the time set by his new teammate.
We are green again
The session has resumed after that red flag while repairs were made to the barriers.
Ricciardo is back in the team's garage starting his debrief into what went wrong.
Meanwhile, the other 19 cars will now complete the remainder of this session, which has 36 minutes left to run.
Red Flag - Ricciardo has crashed out
The Aussie is OK, but he has planted his McLaren into the barrier just by the swimming pool.
It is the technical section of the track but you can see he lost control during his flying lap and that sent him into the crash barriers.
Thankfully they were the impact-absorbing Tecpro ones, unlike the ones we saw in Miami.
Ricciardo has radioed the team to say he's ok and will explain where he went wrong once he gets back to the garage.
Tsunoda has a lock up
A mistake from the AlphaTauri man as he locks up and comes to a stop at turn one.
He's kept that car running but that was an easy mistake to make. He's damaged his tyres in the process too.
He says out the radio "the vibration is really bad. I cannot drive."
FP2 is go
Green light in the pitlane as the cars ferry out on track. The two Williams drivers are first out.
Verstappen, Perez and Norris are also in the first group to edge their way around this historic track.