As the drivers went out of the pit lane towards the grid, Leclerc’s car had an issue and had to return to the garage, Ferrari later announced that he was not going to drive at all at his home race. This allowed every other driver the opportunity to move up one place.

Perez remained in P8 but did his best work of the race around the stops. The Mexican put in a series of fast laps [including a fastest lap] after Vettel, Hamilton and Gasly pitted; thanks to his tremendous pace, he jumped all three when he boxed. 

It moved him up to P4 and that's where he finished as he couldn't find a way past Lando Norris due to the tight confides of Monaco. Nonetheless, it was a tremendous recovery by the Mexican and is now P5 in the Drivers' Championship. 

“Today is a great day for the Team and I’m very happy for Max, he did a mega job and now we are leading both championships. The Team did a fantastic job on strategy and the communication throughout the race was excellent. We saved the tyres and used them when we needed to which was key and we did two or three qualifying laps to jump the queue of cars to get fourth.

“I think once I’m more comfortable with the car in qualifying, we’ll be in serious contention and fighting for victories.

"I was closing on Lando but he had good tyres left and I never really had a clear chance at him. I was thinking of the long game and getting the points which is important for the Team. The cars are just so wide these days but it is what it is. We managed to minimise the damage from Saturday and I think once I’m more comfortable with the car in qualifying, we’ll be in serious contention and fighting for victories as I’m happy and pretty much there on Sundays.”