Family means everything to Sergio Perez.
Following the Spanish Grand Prix, where he had obeyed team orders to prioritise his team mate three separate times, Perez arrived in Monaco with his status within his own team under question from media commentators and hot take artists on social media alike.
When Perez departs Monte-Carlo to return to his wife, family and new-born son after this weekend, he will do so having shown both his family and the motorsport world that he is far more than just a number two driver.
After consistently out-pacing his world champion team mate Max Verstappen across the three practice sessions, Perez secured third on the grid through unconventional means – spinning at Portier and blocking the track, bringing an end to qualifying.
With hometown hero Charles Leclerc leading a Ferrari front-row lockout, Verstappen admitted on Saturday evening that Red Bull might have to do “a little rain dance” to give themselves a chance of beating Ferrari to the victory. Whatever moves Verstappen pulled in the privacy of his seaside apartment that night, they proved just the trick.
The downpour that hit the grid ten minutes before the field was scheduled to pull away for the formation lap was so well timed it could have been almost divine intervention. But while the teams seemed prepared to react to the rain they had been anticipating since before track action for the weekend had begun, FIA race director Eduardo Freitas seemed reluctant to send 20 Formula 1 cars charging into Sainte Devote in wet conditions without any prior wet tyre running in only his second weekend in the role.
A 16-minute delay led to two formation laps behind the Safety Car, but that did not bring the race start any closer. “It needs to be stopped like this,” assessed Lando Norris from his fifth-placed McLaren. “It’s too wet.”
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Sure enough the race was almost…