Red Bull’s Sergio Perez has described becoming Mexico’s most successful F1 driver as “a dream come true” after he won the 2022 Monaco Grand Prix.
Perez ran third in the opening stint following a 65-minute delay due to heavy rain showers, although an early pit stop on Lap 17 for intermediate tyres enabled him to leapfrog home favourite and race leader – Charles Leclerc for second when the Monegasque stopped two laps later.
Ferrari’s Carlos Sainz meanwhile opted to go from wet to hard tyres at the end of Lap 21 which unleashed Perez into the lead, with the Mexican delivering a quick in-lap as he switched from his short intermediate tyre stint to hard tyres and overcut Sainz to claim the race lead.
A red flag on Lap 30 following a crash for Haas’ Mick Schumacher then allowed Perez to gamble on the medium tyres, only for him to lock up at Mirabeau on the first green-flag lap on the restart on Lap 33 but was able to build a sizeable lead of around three-and-a-half seconds.
Perez’s earlier lock-up however caused his front-left tyre to degrade badly in the closing laps as Sainz rapidly reeled him in, yet Perez was able to cling on to take victory by 1.154s from Sainz at the checkered flag for his third F1 win to become Mexico’s most successful driver in the sport.
Reflecting on his emotions post-race at breaking his joint-record with compatriot – Pedro Rodriguez, Perez admitted that he found it “really hard” to focus after the race due to feeling “full of adrenaline and so much energy going through the race.
“Once I heard my national anthem on the podium here it hit me, it is a dream come true for any driver in the world to tick that box in Monaco and I can just be extremely happy.”
On his strong pace across the whole weekend which saw him better his teammate – Max Verstappen across every session – except in Q1, Perez felt that he had been “quick” across all three days and believed that his race strategy was crucial to clinching the win.
Monaco though is always a tricky race to win even just once which Perez acknowledged as making his success more special, as he added: “You don’t win Monaco many times in your life so the first one is very special.”
Verstappen meanwhile was extremely complimentary of Perez’s achievement as he hailed the Mexican for delivering “an incredible job”, whilst praising Red Bull for providing Perez with a race-winning strategy in what he described as “the biggest positive of the day.”
Leave a Reply