George Russell making a “mockery” with his off-track pass on Alex Albon in Monaco wasn’t the moment of the race, but it was the consequence of “silly” tactics devised in response to F1’s two-stop strategy.

That’s the opinion of 2009 World Champion and Sky F1 pundit Jenson Button.

Jenson Button: George Russell antics made ‘mockery’ of Monaco GP rule

After last year’s no-stopping Monaco Grand Prix, the result of a red flag on the opening lap that allowed the drivers to change their tyres in a free pit stop, Formula 1 implemented a mandatory two-stop strategy for this year’s Grand Prix.

It was hailed as an innovative idea to improve the racing, but the only thing it had an impact on was strategy.

While some of the drivers completed both of their tyre changes in the opening 20 laps, others only began theirs in the final 10.

And in the midst of it all, some teams, notably Racing Bulls and Williams, played the team-mate game.

Racing Bulls started it as Liam Lawson backed off to make a gap for Isack Hadjar to pit – not once but twice – before Williams followed suit as Carlos Sainz held up the field for Alex Albon, and Albon then returned the favour.

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Given the Williams team-mates were the drivers right in front of Russell, their antics frustrated the Mercedes driver who, having called out Albon for “dangerously slow” driving, cut the Nouvelle Chicane and told Mercedes that he was okay with copping a penalty for doing it.

The race was won by Lando Norris ahead of Charles Leclerc, Oscar Piastri and Max Verstappen – the lead quartet finishing as they started.

Although it is fair to say the race did offer more strategies and more questions, what it didn’t provide was more on-track excitement with everything done in the pits.

“When teams were using one driver to help another and going six seconds a lap slower, it looked a bit silly,” Button said during Sky F1’s coverage.

“Then we had George trying to jump Albon through the chicane to get in front and push on, again, it makes a bit of a mockery of it.

“It hasn’t worked. I love that we tried it but we need to work out a way of tweaking it.

“As a kid, eight years old, you look at F1 as the pinnacle and think you want to get there because you drive fast. Then you come to Monaco and it’s about driving as slow as you can for your team-mate.

“And the drivers are embarrassed but they did what they had to [in order] to score points.”

His fellow pundit and former F1 driver Martin Brundle rued a race dominated by pitting, not racing.

“It didn’t work, did it?” said Brundle. “The focus was on pitting and not on racing.

“I don’t want to see drivers all the way through the field playing a game. This is about excellence, about the highest point of motorsport and I don’t like to see so many drivers going slowly.”

However, 1996 World Champion Damon Hill disagreed with his compatriots as he felt the rule worked as it opened to the various strategies, one that could’ve even seen Verstappen win from fourth on the grid.

The Dutchman was the very last of the frontrunners to make his second stop, doing so only on the penultimate lap as he led the latter part of the race hoping for a Safety Car to give him a free pit stop.

It didn’t materialise and he fell back to fourth when he pitted, but it was at least another strategy conundrum in the mix.

“Clearly not an epic grand prix race but I thought the 3 tyre rule worked,” he wrote on Twitter. “Max gambled on a stopped race. It didn’t work, but it might have.

“Meanwhile, Lando is back on course for a World Championship. Looked like a very focused racer. A perfect weekend.”

Norris’ victory moved him to within three points of Piastri in the Drivers’ standings with Verstappen a further 22 off the pace.

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