Oscar Piastri's major Max Verstappen admission after Monaco GP

Max Verstappen has become Red Bull's most successful F1 driver after winning a rain-affected Monaco Grand Prix that tested the concentration of the entire grid. The Dutchman lead from start to finish from pole position, but it didn't come easy as rain threatened to throw a spanner in the works.

Aussie driver Oscar Piastri was able to secure his second points finish of the season on the notoriously tricky street circuit, improving from 11th on the grid to 10th, finishing behind McLaren teammate Lando Norris. Verstappen finished ahead of Aston Martin's Fernando Alonso, who was left to rue a costly call to pit once before the rain came down before pitting a second time to fit intermediate tyres as the rain began to fall.

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Alonso had a chance to steal victory in the pitlane had he waited and stopped once to fit the wets, but the duelling strategies of the two leaders ultimately made it a missed opportunity. Meanwhile, Ferrari's Carlos Sainz endured something of a shocker, damaging his front wing early in the race in a clumsy attempt to overtake third-placed Alpine driver Esteban Ocon.

However it was Alonso's missed opportunity to win his first grand prix since 2013 that became the major story. Former F1 champion Jensen Button said he was surprised Alonso made his first pitstop when he did, but conceded that even if Aston Martin had nailed the initial call to change to intermediates, it would still have been very close as he emerged from the pits.

“They didn’t want to go to the inter tyre yet, but I’m just surprised he made the pit stop,” Button said. “In those conditions, you’re not sure if it’s going to be wet or dry, so you’d normally wait until you’re sure. Great P2 still.

“This was their best chance. It also would have put more pressure on Red Bull if they made the right tyre choice. Even if they went on the right tyre, it would have been a close call coming out of the pits.”

Verstappen's victory saw him surpass four-time world champion Sebastian Vettel as Red Bull's most successful driver, bringing up his 39th victory for the team. He also extended his lead in the championship standings to 38 points, after teammate Sergio Perez finished outside the points, his race ruined before it began after a crash in qualifying.

Oscar Piastri impresses in points-scoring finish for McLaren

Piastri was lapped by Verstappen on lap 51 of 78 - just as the rain began to fall. However the Melbourne born driver said this actually worked to his advantage and proved to be a helpful learning experience following the two-time world champion in changing conditions.

"Having Max right in front of me was actually quite useful in some ways," he said. "That was my first time on slicks on a rainy track, in an F1 car.

"And having Max there … I obviously knew that if there's going to be anyone that's probably going to be okay (in the wet) it's probably going to be him."

Piastri has been foiled a number of times by mechanical issues this season, but his McLaren held true on Sunday, allowing him to move up to 13th in the drivers' standings. He said the team would review their race to see whether there was any chance they could have finished higher, but his instincts told him that they had extracted the best possible finishing position from where they started.

Both Piastri and Norris made exciting overtaking moves around the outside of Alpha Tauri's Yuki Tsunoda on the main straight to vault the McLarens into the final two point scoring positions. Monaco's tight street circuit is has become famously difficult to make a passing move on, as F1 machinery has grown in size compared to the extremely tight barriers.

"I'm pretty happy ... there's not a great deal you can do in Monaco on Sunday," he said. "We made a good strategy call to start on the hard tyre and when the rain began to fall, the communications were very good as we decided if and when to go on to the intermediate tyre.

"We'll have a look to see if there was anything we could have done better but it feels like we did a good job."

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