Marko ‘happy to take’ Ferrari’s Monaco gift

All but gifting Red Bull the race win in Monaco, Helmut Marko says Red Bull were “happy to take” it from Ferrari.

Charles Leclerc looked to be racing towards a maiden Monaco Grand Prix win, the Ferrari driver five seconds up the road from Carlos Sainz, the latter acting as a buffer between his team-mate and the chasing Red Bull drivers.

And then it all changed in the space of three laps.

Ferrari made the call to stop Leclerc for intermediate tyres, only to then call him in for slicks three laps later.

That not only cost him the win but also a podium finish with Sergio Perez, who had stopped earlier for inters and had six laps on those tyres – enough to give him the undercut on Ferrari – before swapping to the hard tyres, taking the lead.

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Confusion then frustration for Charles #MonacoGP #F1 pic.twitter.com/KaAlH2NP5F

— Formula 1 (@F1) May 29, 2022

The Mexican driver held on to it through to the chequered flag despite immense pressure from Carlos Sainz in the final 15 laps.

Max Verstappen was third, Marko enjoying his team’s double podium finish in a race in which it had initially looked as if Ferrari could take the 1-2.

“I can’t judge how they did it internally,” he told Sky Germany of Ferrari’s blunder. “We were happy to take what was served to us.”

The 79-year-old was full of praise for Red Bull’s strategy, the Milton Keynes squad keeping their cool in the face of difficult decisions that needed to be made.

“The decisive factor was the strategy,” he said. “The decisive factor was the calm to stay out, even though other teams had already set the fastest laps on the intermediates.”

Marko was “especially”