Verstappen: It was a difficult race

The reigning Formula 1 Champion delivered a masterful performance throughout the Formula 1 weekend around Monaco snatching pole from Fernando Alonso on Saturday, then beating him in the race on Sunday.

The Dutchman delivered a masterclass in tyre management during the Monaco race, making his Medium tyres last until the rain hit the track on lap 52, and then switching to Intermediates in what was an impeccable race management by the Red Bull pit wall as well, while Aston Martin dropped the ball.

Speaking after the race in Red Bull's media brief, Verstappen said: "It’s super nice to win here again in Monaco!

"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. The rain also made it quite complicated, we made the call for inters, the first few laps on them were incredibly slippery," he explained.

"I clipped the walls a few times again, but that’s Monaco!" the Red Bull ace added. "When you are that far in the lead, you don’t want to push that hard but also you don’t want to loose too much time. We managed to stay calm and bring it home and we scored a good amount of points for the Team.

"I of course will celebrate this evening with my friends and family but tomorrow we focus on Spain," Verstappen concluded.

On the other side of the Red Bull garage, Sergio Perez had a nightmare of a race, starting from 20th on the grid after crashing in Qualifying on Saturday.

Perez spent his time stuck behind slower cars, then clipped the rear of Kevin Magnussen's Haas on Lap 35, and also survived a moment with George Russell, for which the Mercedes driver was penalized. In the end was pitted several times as if Red Bull were using his car as a test bed for tyre compound performance to properly manage Verstappen's race.

"It was the worst weekend I can remember in a while; everything went wrong and today we paid the price for a poor mistake from myself in qualifying," Perez said.

"I am really sad about the performance, not just today but the whole weekend. I knew yesterday would be extremely costly and ultimately it was 25 points. The conditions were tricky out there and there was some hope that when it started raining we could get things right but we didn’t, it was a shame.

"I don’t think there was much we could have done differently; all the damage was done yesterday. I only want to move on from this race because it was a terrible weekend. I still have hope in the Championship but I know I cannot afford another zero in a race, so I really hope I can be back to my normal level in Barcelona.

"I need to be perfect in the next few races, I need to get victories and get them soon. I am happy we are racing in a few days," Perez concluded.

With Verstappen banking 25 points on Sunday in Monaco, Perez nil, the former now leads the Drivers' Standings by 39 points.