Sergio Perez winning in Monaco means that the Mexican is just six points behind Charles Leclerc and 15 behind Max Verstappen.
It took Perez a lot of time to find his groove in Red Bull last year. 2022 however, has been a different story. He has closed the gap to Verstappen, and is much closer to him in most races.
In last week’s race in Barcelona, the Mexican was also in a great position to win the race but team orders from Red Bull forced him to let Verstappen pass. On Sunday however, Perez drove a brilliant race to take his first win of the season.
He started the race P3 ahead of Verstappen in fourth. A brilliant overcut strategy from the Red Bull crew allowed him to jump Ferrari’s Carlos Sainz after switching to dry compound tyres. A red flag gave the Ferrari driver some hope in terms of winning his first race of the season.
Perez restarted the race on medium tyres, and looked like he was suffering from graining issues towards the end. Nevertheless, he held Sainz off beautifully, to take P1 in Monaco.
F1 Twitter counts Sergio Perez as a part of the Championship battle
When the season started, not many people counted Perez as a serious Title challenger. This was less due to his own ability, but more because of just how dominant Verstappen can be.
The Guadalajara born driver rose up to the challenge, and is now firmly in the midst of the Title fight. He’s just six points behind Leclerc, who at one stage was 40 points ahead of Verstappen in the standings.
The 2022 F1 season continues in two weeks time, when the teams will travel to Baku for the Azerbaijan Grand Prix. Perez won his first race with Red Bull in Baku last year.
