International press praise Red Bull: 'That was a masterstroke'

The Monaco Grand Prix is not known for it's spectacle on the track. It was mostly a strategic joust, with two dropouts from two top teams. Max Verstappen won the race, taking over the lead in the championship. Mercedes had a bad weekend and the international press was critical of Mercedes.

Marca

"The race was won from start to finish and dominated by an unbeatable Verstappen. That has helped him towards the top of the championship, followed by Lewis Hamilton, who finished seventh on one of Mercedes' worst days in years," the Spanish magazine starts. In addition to bad Mercedes, Marca also pays attention to their new hero, Carlos Sainz.

"Carlos was actually the only one who could keep up with Max throughout the race. He is now two points behind Leclerc and as Binotto said, 'Ferrari now has two strong drivers'. Sainz is a future Grand Prix winner."

Marca also takes a look at Sergio Perez's overtaking race. The Mexican started ninth, but crossed the line fourth. "He won two places with a masterful overcut by Red Bull".

La Gazzetta Dello Sport

The Italian newspaper is very supportive of Ferrari and Red Bull and sees that Mercedes clearly made a misstep. "With victory number twelve in his career, the Dutchman revolutionized the championship by taking over the lead. After Lewis' successes in Portimao and Montmelo, Red Bull responded in the Principality."

Strategy plays an important role and La Gazzetta notes that some teams did this better than others. "Vettel already managed to recapture two positions at the pit stop, passing Hamilton and Gasly. Red Bull did this even better. He stopped a lot later and came back onto the track in fourth place."

Sky Sports

In the UK, they especially see that Mercedes made big mistakes. "Mercedes' Monaco Grand Prix really went into a downward spiral, due to some terrible laps. A frustrated Hamilton finished seventh as he lost places in midfield due to a mistimed pit stop and then Bottas' race was finished in the pit lane."

"For Red Bull, things could not have gone better. Verstappen was hardly attacked on the way to victory, while the team also got extra motivation from Perez, who came back from eighth place to fourth."

Auto, Motor und Sport

At the German medium, they note that the Monaco curse for Leclerc still holds. "That made Verstappen's life easy in the end. At the start he put his overview in and maintained the lead over Bottas".

AMuS also sees that Hamilton has limited the damage by grabbing the fastest race lap in Monaco, but is that one point not worth much now, with Verstappen having taken over the lead.

L'Équipe

The French newspaper writes of Verstappen's luck and that everything fell into place for the Dutchman at the legendary street circuit."He did not miss his chance to win for the first time in Monaco. He managed perfectly to keep the lead during the only dangerous moment, the start, and not give it up again."

About Mercedes, L'Équipe was a lot less positive."This weekend was already not the weekend of Mercedes and that was confirmed during the race. By bringing Hamilton in first, the German team made an unusual strategic mistake. Not only did the undercut attempt fail, but as a result Vettel and Perez got past."