Red Bull's two time World Champion and 2023 Monaco pole sitter, Max Verstappen, won a flag-to-flag victory at the 2023 Monaco Grand Prix at the Circuit de Monaco, Monte Carlo, Monaco on Sunday. The victory was the Dutch driver's 39th win for Red Bull, a team record. Verstappen has finished in the top two in every F1 race of the 2023 season.

A starting line duel between Verstappen and outside pole sitter Fernando Alonzo did not materialize as Verstappen opted to start on medium tires while Alonzo, also a two time World Champion, opted for hards, letting Verstappen easily win the sprint to Sainte Devote, the first Circuit de Monaco turn - a right hander.

"This was a difficult race to manage: we fitted Fernando with the Hard compound, hoping to use the strategy to jump Max later in the race," said Mike Krack, Aston-Martin Team Principal.

Alonzo pitted before Verstappen, taking on mediums on Lap 54 of 78 with light rain falling on part of Circuit de Monaco. Minutes later rain engulfed the track and Verstappen pitted for intermediates. Alonzo had to come in for intermediates on the following lap, giving Verstappen an 18 second lead and the ability to win the Monaco Grand Prix barring any errors - which the 2023 points leader accomplished.

"It was actually quite a difficult race, we were on the medium to begin with and Fernando on the hard compound, so we didn't want the first stint to be that long but we had to stay out," said Verstappen. "The rain also made it quite complicated, we made the call for inters, the first few laps on them were incredibly slippery. I clipped the walls a few times again, but that's Monaco."

"I was surprised [Aston-Martin] took the medium tyre and that totally got us off the hook and then it was a question of getting it to the pits and having us turn the car around," said Christian Horner, Red Bull Team Principal.

"I think, in 20:20 hindsight, we should have probably pitted one lap earlier to go on to the inters. But thereafter, he was very mature when the rain came. He took it steady and brought in the tyres and really closed out the race," added Horner.

"For me, it was very clear that the track on that lap we stopped was completely dry, apart from Turn 7 and 8," said Alonso. "So how I would put the inters? It was completely dry. 99 percent of the track. So I stopped for dries."

The second place finish for Aston-Martin tied their best result as a team.

Esteban Ocon thrilled the French fans at Circuit de Monaco notching his third podium appearance of his Formula One career. With Alpine teammate Pierre Gasly finishing seventh, the duo of French born drivers brought home double points for Alpine BWT F1 Racing. Monaco was the team's 50th start in Formula 1.

"Today was all about staying composed under pressure - notably for our pit crew, engineers and strategists - in dealing with some challenging circumstances with the varying tyre strategies and unpredictable weather," said Otmar Szafnauer, Alpine Team Principal. "It was also about two world class race drives from both Esteban and Pierre to deliver such a strong team result."

Ocon's feat was even more impressive given the Silver Arrows of Mercedes finished directly behind him with Lewis Hamilton finishing fourth and George Russell finishing fifth. Hamilton started fifth on the grid with Russell starting eighth.

"This was a solid result and good points for the team after a race where it would have been easy to make mistakes or move backwards through the field," said Toto Wolff, Mercedes Team Principal & CEO. "The strategists called it exactly right today in terms of switching to the intermediate tyres, and that's what jumped us ahead of Ferrari to get P4 and P5."

While Ferrari had a double-points weekend with Charles Leclerc finishing P6 and Carlos Sainz finishing P8, the worldwide tifosi had to be disappointed as more was expected of the SF-23's at Monaco this weekend.

"It was an eventful race in Monaco today. The final result is not what I was aiming for because I had good pace with every compound and P8 is frustrating," said Sainz.

"We were on the backfoot from the moment we got the penalty yesterday," said Leclerc. "When it started to rain we could have gone onto the Inters early, but we decided not to as there were still a lot of cars on slicks and so we decided to wait in the hope of a Safety Car which 90% of the time you would expect here in those conditions."

"Of course, with the benefit of hindsight, you might take a different decision but at the time it seemed like a good opportunity to make up a lot of places. I have no regrets about the decisions we made regarding our strategy. It is what it is, but it's really the grid penalty that worked against us," added Leclerc.

On Saturday, Leclerc qualified P3 but started sixth on the grid after being handed a 3-place grid drop for impeding Lando Norris in Q3.

Norris and Oscar Piastri gave McLaren Racing a double points weekend finishing ninth and tenth, respectively. Piastri, a rookie driver from Australia, has had two top ten finishes in his six-race F1 career.

Pos	Driver		Team		Time		Gap

1	Verstappen	Red Bull	78	1h 48:51.980
2	Alonso		Aston Martin	78	+ 0:27.921
3	Ocon		Alpine		78	+ 0:36.990
4	Hamilton	Mercedes	78	+ 0:39.062
5	Russell		Mercedes	78	+ 0:56.284
6	Leclerc		Ferrari		78	+ 1:01.890
7	Gasly		Alpine		78	+ 1:02.362
8	Sainz		Ferrari		78	+ 1:03.391
9	Norris		McLaren		77	+ 1 Lap
10	Piastri		McLaren		77	+ 1 Lap
11	Bottas		Alfa Romeo	77	+ 1 Lap
12	de Vries	AlphaTauri	77	+ 1 Lap
13	Zhou		Alfa Romeo	77	+ 1 Lap
14	Albon		Williams	77	+ 1 Lap
15	Tsunoda		AlphaTauri	76	+ 2 Laps
16	Perez		Red Bull	76	+ 2 Laps
17	Hulkenberg	Haas		76	+ 2 Laps
18	Sargeant	Williams	76	+ 2 Laps
	Magnussen	Haas		70	Retired
	Stroll		Aston Martin	53	Retired


Fastest Lap: Hamilton (Mercedes) 1:15.650 (Lap 33)