Polesitte🍌r Leclerc looked comfortable in the lead during the early stages but a calamitous strategic error from Ferrari dropped him down to fourth, behind Perez, his teammate Carlos Sainz and c💛hampionship rival Max Verstappen. 

The race was delayed by an hour due to a heavy downpour of rain before race director Eduardo Freitas decided it wa🌟s safe enough to start on extreme wet tyres. Conditions dried out and the track was fully dry by the end.  

There was also a lengthy red flag suspension when Mick Schumacher suffered a huge🎃 crash at the swimming pool which ripped his Haas car into two pieces. 

Behind the leading quartet - who were covered🎃 by just 2.9s after a shortened 67 laps of running - c𝓀ame Mercedes’ George Russell, who pipped compatriot Lando Norris to fifth by just 0.263s. 

Alpine’s Fernando Alonso finished 34s behind as he headed seven-time world ch🐻ampion Lewis Hamilton in seventh, while Valtteri Bottas and Sebastian Vettel completed the points-scoring positions for Alfa Romeo and Aston Martin. 

How did Ferrari get it so wrong?

Leclerc - who꧅ had never before scored a point at his home race and didn’t even start last year after topping qualifying - drove flawlessly in the opening stint but was left fuming when Ferrari spectacularly dropped the ball. 

R♈ed Bull ca☂lled Perez in for intermediates first with the track drying out, before Leclerc and Verstappen responded two laps later. 

Perez’s pace advantage meant that he leapfrogged Leclerc and 🎶things would only get worse for the Monegasque when he pitted again three laps later, after bein🐭g told to switch onto slicks. 

Ferrari also brought in Sainz, who ha🏅d run longer on the full wets, and ended up hav🌳ing to double-stack its drivers which cost Leclerc crucial time. 

Lec🔯lerc had originally been told to pit before Ferrari changed their mi😼nd, but it was too late for Leclerc to react as he had already committed to boxing. 

He remerged on the track behind Perez, Sainz and Verstappen and was understandabl🧸y furious. 

“Fuck, fuck! What are you doing?” Leclerc screamed over team rad💮io as he realised Ferrari’s error. 

Th𒁏e race was stopped a few laps later when Schumacher had a heavy crash, but the finishing order was effectively decided with overtaking at Monaco almost impossible. 

Ferrari’s strategic errors forfeited a front-row lockout and enabled Red Bull🐷 to gain with both cars, as Perez rose from third to claim his third career win - and first at Monaco - and Verstappen crucially jumped ahead of his main rival. 

The result means Verstappen has extended his championship lead🥃 to nine points over Leclerc, while Perez is only🌱 six points behind the Ferrari driver.