Carlos Sainz (P8, 4 pts): 6.5/10
Once again, this weekend seemed to be a mixed bag of missed opportunities for Ferrari, and Carlos Sainz was not holding back voicing his unhappiness at some of the calls made during the race. He'd been quickest of all in FP1 but then crashed and caused a red flag in the later afternoon session. Even so remained in the top five for the remainder of the sessions and went into qualifying with high hopes, only to end up a slightly disappointing P5 after getting repeatedly stuck in traffic. "We were not in the right place at the right time," perhaps suggesting he didn't think the Ferrari pit wall was on top of things. In the race he found himself running behind Esteban Ocon in the opening laps, who was holding everyone up to the point that a frustrated Sainz finally snapped his front wing endplate on the back of the Alpine at the chicane. The nature of Monaco meant the loss of downforce wasn't a major problem for the Ferrari, which was good as he had started on hard tyres and wasn't expecting to pit until deep into the race. It was a surprise therefore when he was called in on lap 33, far too early to move to mediums, but the team had decided they had to cover off the threat from Lewis Hamilton who had just pitted. Whether Sainz was right to quibble or not we'll never know, as it was a spin into the run-off at Mirabeau when the rain started falling that really did for his chances of a podium. It left him sullenly circulating in eighth to the finish, unhappy with the rain and life in general as he finished two spots behind team mate Charles Leclerc.
Pierre Gasly (P7, 6 pts): 8/10
This was Alpine's strongest race of the season so far, and while the spotlight might have been on Esteban Ocon finishing on the podium it was also a very good day for his team mate Pierre Gasly as well. After a sluggish start in first practice, Gasly had caught up with Ocon and was narrowly the faster of the pair in FP2 and again in FP3. He'd been sixth in the second round of qualifying but wasn't able to match Ocon's pace in Q3 leaving him slightly disappointed to be starting the race in seventh. The two were on different strategies - Ocon beginning the race on mediums meaning an early stop on lap 32, Gasly on hards lasting until lap 47. In the end, both ploys were trumped by the rain that fell a few laps later: Gasly had wanted the team to wait and switch him to inters but was overruled and in the end he (and Ocon) had to stop for a second time on lap 54. "I don't understand: it was the ideal scenario, all we expected, we could have been third and fourth." While Ocon's margin was sufficient to see him stay on the podium, Gasly dropped to P7 asa result and was left to mull what might have been.
