How traits of Red Bull played a role in Max Verstappen playing catch-up on pole position laps in Monaco, according to F1 pundit

F1 pundit Mark Hughes mentioned that Red Bull's trait of being slow on tire warmup was the reason for Max Verstappen pulling a 'miraculous' final sector in Monaco.

The Dutch driver won the Monaco GP after a stunning pole lap on Saturday meant that he started in front of Aston Martin driver Fernando Alonso, his closest competition on the weekend in. He pulled off three-tenths in the final sector alone to narrowly qualify on the pole after being down the whole lap.

While appearing on The Race podcast, Hughes said:

"That was the key as he really had to pull it out of the bag and did a fantastic job in doing so. But the reason why had to pull it out of the bag and why he was down after two sectors was all to do with the traits of the Red Bull and how it treats its tires."

"We've seen on more conventional tracks that Red Bull's qualifying advantage is relatively small compared to its race advantage. That remained so and even more the case around Monaco because the circuit's very gentle on the tires and Red Bull conceived the way it is doesn't put heat quickly in the front tires,"

"Sergio would be better off making sure he finishes second and accepting the genius of Max Verstappen" - Former F1 driver

Former F1 driver and pundit Martin Brundle mentioned that it would be easier for Sergio Perez to accept Max Verstappen's genius after his Monaco GP win. In his column on Sky Sports, Brundle wrote:

"Max Verstappen would brilliantly win his second Monaco Grand Prix and continue his run of never finishing outside the top two this year. He now leads team-mate Perez by 39 points which are approaching the equivalent of a win and a third place in hand."

"What I learned when I was in direct competition with Ayrton Senna, Michael Schumacher, and Mika Hakkinen and I simply couldn't match their raw speed and gifted talents was to maximize everything that was in my control such as car race set-up, starts, in laps, out laps, traffic management and so on."

Brundle continued:

"Sergio would be better off making sure he finishes second and accepting the genius of Max Verstappen and then maximizing the days when he delivers his own special magic such as Singapore last year and Baku this season.

With such a huge lead, it is difficult to see how the Mexican driver can continue to challenge Max Verstappen in the title race.