Perez: Hard for me to think straight after the race

It wasn't a straight forward race to win for the Mexican, despite having the edge over his teammate Max Verstappen in Monaco, but he did not put a foot wrong throughout the race, and a decent strategy from Red Bull combined with a blunder by Ferrari meant he could take the win.

He would have been worried a bit after the race as Ferrari lodged a protest against him and his teammate for violating the pit exit rules after the pit stops, but the Stewards dismissed all the protests upholding the race result.

Perez said in the team's post race report: "It was really hard for me to think straight after the race, I was full of adrenaline and so much energy going through the race.

"Once I heard my national anthem on the podium here it hit me, it is a dream come true for any driver in the world to tick that box in Monaco and I can just be extremely happy," he added. "We were quick all weekend, we kept our heads down and knew today with the right strategy we could make things happen."

Perez dedicated his win to his ill mother saying: "This win was for my mum and all my family, she was very sick last week so I had very good motivation going into this race to get her a victory.

"It’s been an incredible day, I am super happy for the whole Team and I hope my country are proud too. You don’t win Monaco many times in your life so the first one is very special," the Mexican concluded.

Red Bull team boss Christian Horner said after the race: "An amazing day for us and an amazing day for Checo; he's been on it all weekend.

"The teamwork, the double stop allowed both of our drivers to pick off a Ferrari. It was fantastic," he added.

The Briton is obviously happy with the job Perez is doing in 2022 as he said: "Checo is doing a great job, the time delta between him and Max has been a lot closer this year. To win this race, his third victory and what a place to get that."

Asked how matters within the team will be sorted as Perez is now third in the Formula 1 Drivers' Championship behind Charles Leclerc and only 15 points behind Verstappen, so whether there will be any team orders, especially after the Mexican was order to let Verstappen through in Barcelona one week ago.

"No," the Red Bull boss said. "He's in this Championship just as much as Max is. The difference between the two of them is 15 points or so, which is nothing.

"There's a long way to go in this Championship and we can see Ferrari have got a very fast car; they had a better car than us on this circuit this weekend," Horner concluded.