F1: Verstappen king of Monte Carlo, not even the rain stops him

Not even the rain stops Red Bull and Max Verstappen. The Dutch world champion also triumphed in the Monte Carlo Grand Prix where twenty laps from the end came the expected downpour that did not affect the one-way race of the flying Dutchman, but removed from the podium both Ferraris who finished in sixth place with Charles Leclerc and in eighth place with Carlos Sainz. Excellent race for Fernando Alonso who despite a stop that he could have avoided is second in front of the Alpine-Renault of Esteban Ocon. At the foot of the podium Mercedes with Lewis Hamilton fourth and George Russell fifth. A race that, wet or dry track, was already decided on Saturday after qualifying where Verstappen managed to take away the pole position from the former Ferrari driver Alonso at the last breath. An invaluable advantage on the Principality's street circuit, whose winding roads make overtaking almost impossible, especially if the flying Dutchman has to be overtaken: once again, the world champion led a perfect race, before and after the rain, without any smudges. Behind the Red Bull phenomenon the best to resist the pitfalls of Monaco were Alonso and Ocon with a podium to remember. Once again anonymous the race of the Ferraris, never fighting for the best places and pushed back by the first drops of rain, not without responsibility on the part of the red wall. Particularly negative was the race in Sainz who, after starting from fourth position, damaged the wing in the early laps due to contact with Ocon and gradually lost positions to his teammate. Another triumph by Verstappen combined with the disappointment for the bad race of Ferrari in front of the usual parade of VIPs in Monte Carlo between actors, players and personalities. From Neymar (whose presence has caused a bit of discussion in France, since it coincided with the absence from the celebrations of PSG for the title) to Briatore, passing through the former MotoGP world champion Quartararo. For the cinema here are Michael Douglas and Catherine Zeta-Jones, while leading the army of the ball there is the president of Fifa, Gianni Infantino, followed by the goalkeeper of the Italian national team, Donnarumma, and the president of Inter, Steven Zhang. Also tennis present with the Russian Maria Sharapova who yesterday gave Verstappen the prize for pole position; today the flying Dutchman has been able to turn it into a triumph that launches him more and more on the run in the World Championship at 144 points, 39 more than his teammate Perez, who started from the bottom and finished 16th at zero points. "To win like we did today in Monaco - admitted the Red Bull world champion - is beautiful, especially with this weather situation, keeping calm and bringing home the result. Do I still stretch in the championship? Yes, exactly..." Then the story of the challenge with Alonso, the only one able to worry him. "It was quite a difficult race - concludes Verstappen - Fernando had the hard, we had the mediums. We didn't want to go that long, but it was necessary to cover Alonso, because we feared the arrival of rain and we didn't really know what would happen."