Max Verstappen continues to gain ground in hunt for title three-peat with Monaco win

Red Bull Racing looks poised for its second consecutive Constructor’s Championship already, as it has won all six races to start the 2023 Formula 1 season. Still, Sergio Perez’s hunt for his first Driver’s Championship isn’t improving as he lost ground to teammate Max Verstappen after the Monaco Grand Prix.

Verstappen won on the streets of Monte Carlo for the second time in his career. It was his fourth victory of 2023, and already, he is running away with the title just past quarter-way through the season. Perez, who already has won twice this year — tying a personal record — has fallen 39 points behind his Red Bull counterpart after finishing 16th on Sunday.

“It was a really difficult day out there,” said Perez after his incident-filled race. “Everything that could have gone wrong went (wrong), and I’m really sad with the performance — but not of today, basically but yesterday, with my mistake. We knew that this was the price we were going to pay.”

Perez crashed in qualifying for the race he won last year, and he started from the back of the grid in 20th.

“I knew my mistake yesterday was very costly, and that was 25 points, so very disappointed,” he said. “I still have some hope, but I know that I cannot afford another (issue) in the championship, so I really hope I can be back to my normal level in Barcelona.”

The two Red Bull drivers are 1-2 in the standings, and Fernando Alonso, who started and finished second at Monaco — is third as he enjoys a late renaissance in his F1 career.

Over the last decade, the big three teams of F1 — Mercedes, Red Bull, and Ferrari — have dominated this sport. But Ferrari and Mercedes haven’t had the pace the Red Bulls do. Mercedes drivers Lewis Hamilton and George Russell are fourth and fifth in the Driver’s Championship, respectively, while Carlos Sainz Jr. and Charles Leclerc are sixth and seventh. On the Constructor’s side, Mercedes sits third with 119 points, while the Scuderia is fourth with 90 points.

Aston Martin is second with 120 points — Alonso earned 93 of them for the team.

F1’s popularity has continued to soar — particularly in the U.S. — over the last few years, and the popular Netflix series “Drive to Survive” has assisted the industry’s rise in American interest. Before Monaco, the Miami Grand Prix enjoyed a healthy attendance of 270,000 people throughout the weekend, which was up from about 240,000 in its inaugural Grand Prix last year. And although the on-track product hasn’t dazzled, the series continues to draw eyes.

Mercedes team principal Toto Wolff says the silver arrows will “get there” in terms of race pace, while Ferrari’s Leclerc says the team is “just too far away.”

F1’s next Grand Prix is in Spain, where Verstappen is the defending winner. It’ll be Alonso and Sainz’s home race, and a podium finish for either driver at Catalunya would surely make the crowd erupt in celebration.

Alonso has earned five podiums in his first six races with Aston Martin and is just 12 points behind Perez for second in the championship picture.