Checo Pérez, during the 2021 Monaco Grand Prix.AFP7 via Europa Press / Europa Press
Checo Pérez needed some chance and in Monaco he found it.
The tire use strategy was also key to leapfrogging from eighth to fourth and challenging Lando Norris for third place.
Max Verstappen took the race and took the lead in the drivers' championship, Carlos Sainz Jr. in second place before a horrible weekend for the Mercedes.
In qualifying for the Monaco Grand Prix, the Mexican had maintained a decent pace that had him in the top five. In the last phase, Q3, Red Bull had taken its time and, in search of its fastest lap, it encountered traffic on the track that cost it key tenths and relegated it to ninth position. The one from Guadalajara was unable to try again as Charles Leclerc smashed the front of the Ferrari and qualifying was halted. The Ferrari mechanics decided not to go out on the track because the car had a problem in a semi-axle. That allowed Pérez to climb to eighth position. Checo Pérez also had an eye on Guadalajara because they tried to rob his family. One of his brother Antonio's bodyguards was wounded by a bullet in the assault on one of the trucks.
The Mexican, on the track in Monaco, started hard to avoid being overtaken, but could not pass Sebastian Vettel, from Aston Martin. That was his great battle on the asphalt. The Mexican, despite breaking fast lap records, only put pressure on him but without exceeding him. The key was to pass the German to complicate the race for Lewis Hamilton, in sixth position. Pérez had to put up with the tires. And fortune touched the Red Bull garage on lap 30. Hamilton entered the
pits
and, in the rearrangement, was behind Pérez. The other Mercedes driver, Valtteri Bottas, also entered the
pits
to change tires and the mechanics could not remove one of the front wheels.
The incident thwarted the Finn's ranking.
Pérez managed to climb to the top and, finally, he was able to help Max Verstappen so that he could have tires that could serve him to finish the race.
Pérez reached the fourth position.
Checo Pérez's car during the Monaco Grand Prix.GONZALO FUENTES / Reuters
The Red Bull Mexican had his sights on Lando Norris, the 21-year-old McLaren driver who has achieved what Pérez did not this season: reach the podium and be in the top positions of the drivers' championship.
Norris began to have problems with the tires and that opened the possibility of Checo's attack in the final laps.
The Mexican began to deduct seconds from the McLaren and, however, he could not pass him.
A chase that enshrines Norris.
In Checo Pérez's first race with Red Bull he came out of the basement of the standings to stay in fifth place.
At Imola he had his worst performance, finishing twelfth.
In Portugal it was fourth and in Spain it was in fifth place.
The Mexican has already molded the Red Bull and is beginning to take flight in Formula 1.
Subscribe here
to the
newsletter
of EL PAÍS México and receive all the informative keys of the current situation of this country