'Gasly may have helped Red Bull to victory in Monaco'

Pierre Gasly was one of the first drivers to switch to the intermediate tyres at the Monaco Grand Prix. According to Jolyon Palmer, he may have helped Red Bull to victory with this.

Red Bull Racing made the aggressive decision in Monaco to allow Sergio Perez to switch to intermediates in an early pit stop. According to former Formula One driver Palmer, Gasly's decision played a crucial role in the final outcome, as the Mexican ultimately managed to win the race.

Indeed, the Frenchman fell back to P18 after making an early pit stop for the intermediates, but he showed after several overtakes on the narrow street circuit that he was very fast on these tyres.

Perez was the first driver at the top to make a pit stop, a choice that worked out well for the Mexican. "I think what actually maybe gave Red Bull this win was Gasly was making progress in the AlphaTauri in a sort of perverse way," Palmer tells the BBC Chequered Flag podcast.

"He showed you could overtake and it meant that everyone wanted to go for the Inters. Because Gasly pitted so early and, on the Inters, was way quicker than anyone else. So, immediately, everyone knows ‘OK, the Inters are quicker’ If Gasly had just been boxed in immediately by Zhou, having been five seconds a lap quicker, and was then just stuck, then no one would have taken the Inters," says the Brit.