It wasn’t the most exciting Monaco Grand Prix with overtaking at a premium and the action on-track very much front-loaded.
Sergio Perez had a huge crash that collected both Haas drivers while Esteban Ocon was warned by his team principal after clashing with his teammate Pierre Gasly.
Harry Benjamin was commentating on the race for BBC Sport and spoke about one driver who had an unusually quiet race on the streets of Monte Carlo.
There were plenty of drivers who barely appeared on the broadcast such was the nature of the race.
Yuki Tsunoda and Alex Albon ran within a second of each other all race and fell more than a lap behind Lewis Hamilton running in front of them, but only those two drivers will know how close an overtake ever was.
However, Benjamin was more surprised by how anonymous Red Bull driver Max Verstappen was during the Monaco Grand Prix.
His 193 Formula 1 race won’t stick in his memory for a long time.
Instead, he may be worried about the progress that teams around Red Bull are continuing to make.
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Max Verstappen has an anonymous race at the Monaco Grand Prix
As is so often the case in Monaco, the result of the race was decided in Saturday’s qualifying session.
Things got off to a terrible start for Red Bull with Sergio Perez eliminated in Q1.
The team will be hoping this isn’t the start of another period of struggles for the Mexican which coincides with his previous difficulties last year.
Verstappen put in some very quick laps but didn’t go into the top-ten shootout expecting to be on pole position.
Charles Leclerc had been incredibly quick all weekend and McLaren also looked very strong.
The Dutchman could only qualify 6 after making a mistake on his final run, meaning he was starting alongside the Mercedes of George Russell.
Finding a way past the Silver Arrow was imperative to Verstappen making progress in the race but that wasn’t possible at either restart.
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Max Verstappen loses ground to Charles Leclerc in Drivers’ Championship
Talking about the race, Benjamin said on commentary: “We don’t say it often in the last two years but an anonymous race for Max Verstappen in sixth.”
After the second restart, nearly every driver had changed their tyres in the pit lane, meaning pit stops were no longer a necessary variable.
As a result, Verstappen, Russell and Lewis Hamilton switched to medium tyres but needed to manage their pace to get to the end of the race.
It meant they were driving considerably slower than the leaders and Verstappen’s recognised how anonymous he was in Monaco over the team radio.
At one point he commented that he should have brought a pillow such was the boredom he and many fans watching were experiencing.
Verstappen did change tyres when Hamilton pitted and quickly closed up to Russell.
But the issues with overtaking at Monaco reared their head once again and even in a quicker car on fresher tyres, he couldn’t find a way past Russell.
Leclerc has now closed the gap to Verstappen to 31 points, meaning whatever happens in Canada the triple world champion will still be leading the Championship after that race.
However, Red Bull will be more concerned with the Constructors’ Championship with Perez failing to score a point and Ferrari securing two podium finishes.
The post ‘Don’t say it often’: Harry Benjamin bemoans 193-race driver who was completely ‘anonymous’ in Monaco appeared first on F1 Oversteer.