Perez 'very very happy' to secure 'dream' first Monaco win!

Sergio Perez was was celebrating in Monaco on Sunday after the Red Bull driver pulled off a famous victory in the 2022 Monaco Grand Prix over Ferrari's Carlos Sainz.

Perez started Sunday's rain-disrupted race from the second row on full wets, but was one of the first of the leaders to make the gamble to pit for intermediate tyres on lap 17 although it lost him position to his team mate Max Verstappen.

Polesitter Charles Leclerc opted to stay out until lap 17 before pitting. By the time that Sainz finally pitted the track was dry enough to switch to slick tyres - and Leclerc came in for a second time in what appeared to be a miscommunication at Ferrari.

• Read also: Perez prevails in shortened rain-hit Monaco GP after Ferrari blunder hits Leclerc

Perez also pitted again for slicks, and his stint on the inters had earned him enough track position to come out of the sequence in the lead with Sainz second ahead of Verstappen and a furious Leclerc.

Although Sainz turned up the heat in the final laps after a red flag stoppage for Mick Schumacher's accident, Perez was able to hold on to the lead all the way to the chequered flag.

"It's a dream come true," he told the media in parc ferme after the end of the race. "As a driver, you dream of winning here. After your home race, there is no other weekend more special to win."

Perez said that it was a "massive day" for himself and for his home nation of Mexico. His third career win - his first at the iconic Monaco - makes him the country's most successful F1 driver in history by moving ahead of Pedro Rodriguez’s two victories.

“I am for sure very, very happy. I mean, I was running today with Pedro Rodriguez’s helmet and I’m sure up there he is super proud of what we have achieved together in this sport.”

He admitted that it had been hard work at the end, after the team opted to switch to mediums during the red flag period for the final stage of the race, leaving him in danger of tyre degradation.

"The way we did it, we just made it a bit harder for ourselves there at the end," he said. "But with the graining I had - to not make any mistake, to bring it home - keeping Carlos behind wasn't easy."

Today's victory comes just a week after Perez was left deflated at the end of the Spanish GP when team orders preventing him from challenging Verstappen for the race win.

This time there was no question of Perez being told to hand over the win to his team mate, with Verstappen never in a position to find his way past the Ferraris to take advantage of anything Perez could do for him.

The win means that Perez is in third place in the drivers championship, just behind Verstappen and Leclerc after seven races in the 2022 championship.

“He’s in this championship just as much as Max is,” Red Bull team principal Horner acknowledged. “The difference between the two of them is 15 points. It’s nothing.

"“It’s a long way to go in this championship," Horner told Sky Sports F1. "We can see that Ferrari has a very fast car. They had a better car than us on this race track this weekend.

"Through great teamwork, great work from the drivers, pit wall, the double stop – we managed to beat them here.

“The team worked a double stop that allowed both of our drivers to pick off a Ferrari, which was fantastic.

“That’s not going to be easy at the coming races," he warned. "As a team we’ve always got to optimise our performance. At the back end of the championship, that’s where it’s going to get really exciting.”

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