Martin Brundle says it went completely ‘under the radar’ how well ‘outstanding’ F1 driver performed at the Monaco Grand Prix

Martin Brundle made it clear during Sunday’s Monaco Grand Prix that the unique rules introduced to try and make the race more exciting weren’t working.

Lando Norris won the Monaco Grand Prix from pole position as so many drivers have done before him, but it wasn’t as straightforward as it typically is on the streets of the Principality.

Max Verstappen stayed out until the penultimate lap, hoping for a red flag to steal victory away from his drivers’ championship rival.

But Brundle complained about the slow driving behind the leaders in Monaco and it’s not often that drivers apologise for their racecraft in their post-race interviews like Williams pair Alex Albon and Carlos Sainz did as a result of their unexpected tactics.

The result of the race did at least close the gap between Norris and teammate Oscar Piastri in the drivers’ standings to three points, while Racing Bulls made some ground after career-best results for Isack Hadjar and Liam Lawson.

Meanwhile, Mercedes had a race to forget after both of their drivers got stuck in the Racing Bulls/Williams train, while Alpine’s double Q1 exit was followed up with a pointless race.

Martin Brundle was quick to point out that another driver who has been barely mentioned since the race in Monaco deserves far more credit than he’s been given.

Esteban Ocon walked away from Monte Carlo with six more points to add to his tally, giving Haas plenty to celebrate on the French Riviera.

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Martin Brundle says ‘outstanding’ Esteban Ocon went ‘under the radar’ at the Monaco Grand Prix

Brundle was writing in his column for Sky Sports F1 after the eighth race weekend of the season and was analysing how the race played out for those behind the leading pack.

Ocon managed to sneak into Q3 and started ahead of Albon, benefiting from both Mercedes drivers and Yuki Tsunoda failing to progress to the top 10 shootout.

He said: “When we look at the results after all the hype and discussion pre-race about the two-stop rule, pretty much nothing changed.

“Lewis Hamilton’s Ferrari, penalised on the grid, passed Isack Hadjar’s impressively-driven Racing Bull in the pit stop phase.

“Sadly, Aston Martin’s Fernando Alonso had a car failure and retired. Both of those things would have happened anyway.

Along with Racing Bulls’ Hadjar and Liam Lawson in sixth and eighth, and Williams’ Alex Albon and Carlos Sainz in ninth and 10th, another impressive performance was Esteban Ocon who finished an outstanding if under-the-radar seventh in his Haas, without any help from a team-mate roadblock.”

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Esteban Ocon and Oliver Bearman already proving people wrong this season

Ocon currently sits ninth in the drivers’ championship after securing strong results in China and Bahrain before heading to Monaco.

Albon is currently leading the way out of all the drivers not racing for the top four teams and has more than doubled Ocon’s points tally.

However, the Frenchman might be secretly pleased that he’s scored 13 more points than his old team Alpine at this stage of the campaign.

Ocon benefited from Lawson’s decision to slow down the pack behind him, allowing him to copy Hadjar’s strategy and complete both of his pit stops while everyone else was getting more and more frustrated behind the 23-year-old.

People expected fireworks between Ocon and new teammate Oliver Bearman when it was announced they would be racing together this season.

However, ‘Bearcon’ as they have become known seem to be getting on swimmingly away from the track.

Ocon thought Bearman deserved more in Monaco after recovering from the back of the grid to P12, but it was the one-time race winner who really stood out to Brundle.