Formula 1 ®
LECLERC ON POLE AT HOME IN MONACO AS MAX HITS THE WALL IN FINAL MINUTES OF Q3! PIASTRI PUTS THE MCLAREN ON THE FRONT ROW CARLOS THIRD. FERNANDO DONDE ESTAS?
For the third time, Charles Leclerc has taken pole position at his home race. The native Monegasque started on the pole in 2021 and 2022; both races were heartbreaking for the native son, with a DNS in 2021 due to a driveshaft error and missing the podium by one position in 2022.
Leclerc’s third pole stopped Max Verstappen’s streak. Heading into Monaco, Verstappen had the chance to become the sole owner of the record for most consecutive poles, with nine straight. He tied the late Ayton Senna last week at Imola.
Oscar Piastri, Monaco’s second son, will share the front row with Leclerc. The duo sparked internet joy this week when Leclerc extended an adoption option to the younger Australian driver so he could claim Monegasque. Piastri was close to stealing the thunder; just 0.026 seconds off of Leclerc’s lap time.
Carlos Sainz finished third but reported over the radio that Piastri impeded him during the final runs of Q3.
Norris followed Sainz in the second McLaren. George Russell and Max make up the third row. Verstappen noted early on in his run that if they didn’t fix something, he would hit the wall, and during Q3, he did on his final run.
Lewis Hamilton, Yuki Tsunoda, Alex Albon, and Pierre Gasly will complete the top ten in Monaco.
Charles LeClerc
It was nice. The feeling after a qualifying lap is always very special here. Really, really happy about the lap. The excitement is so high that it feels really good. However, I know more often than not in the past, qualifying is not everything. As much as it helps a lot for Sunday’s race, we need to put everything together coming Sunday. And in the past years, we didn’t manage to do so. But we are a stronger team. We are in a stronger position. And I’m sure we can achieve great things tomorrow. And obviously, the win is the target.
I need a good launch. I need a good launch off the grid. And then once we do that, then hopefully Carlos can have a great start and follow me into Turn 1 and be 1-2. And if we are 1-2, then we can manage that as a team. That would be the perfect scenario. But whatever happens, we just need to bring that victory home.
It feels as good as the first one. I think in Monaco, the emotions you get, the tension that you have before getting into the car is so much more than anywhere else on the calendar. So yeah, once you finish the lap and you hear that you’re on pole position, it’s always a very special feeling. However, maybe in the past the emotions were staying for longer, but now obviously having started twice on pole and not bringing the victory, which is at the end what matters the most, is where my mind is at the moment, just trying to prepare and make everything possible. It’s been a bit of a roller coaster. The weekend has been incredible until after FP3 where there was an issue with my engine and there was an engine swap at the very last minute, which was quite tricky. But fortunately for me, there wasn’t any consequence for my weekend.
Max Verstappen
“It has not been a good weekend for the Team in general. We have tried a lot of changes over the past few days and nothing has helped optimise the performance of the car. In general, it drives well on the straight but has been very difficult over the curves and bumps so has not been good to drive on this kind of track. The ride of the car is not good and it has been bouncing around a lot, which makes it really tricky. The issue isn’t a new thing for us and we have been struggling with this for a while. We have tried everything to solve the issue but I still felt like I was often close to going into the wall. Although I did feel comfortable pushing it to the limit, it is a huge challenge to be consistent and we just didn’t have the fastest car today. Looking to tomorrow, we will work hard to try to find the problem. In Monaco things can happen that you don’t expect, so never say never, but we are not expecting miracles.”
Oscar Piastri
Good question. I mean, I think if you took the second half of my first lap in Q3 and the first half of the second one, it would have been enough. But, yeah, just a couple of mistakes at the end. But, you know, credit to Charles. He’s been incredibly quick all weekend. At certain points, I don’t think anyone thought we were going to get close to him. So, yeah, nice to be starting on the front row. I feel like it’s been a good weekend in terms of building momentum. And, yeah, what better colours to do it in than these?
A bit of both. I mean, a good start always helps. And if you can get into the lead, then you can control it very easily around here. So that’s probably the first goal. And if not, then with strategy. Because, yeah, as optimistic as I want to be, overtaking around here is not easy. So we’ll try our best, but starting from a good spot and yeah, a chance for a good day tomorrow.
Carlos Sainz
Yeah, I think overall it was an improvement for me. I’ve been struggling all weekend with confidence and feeling with the car. So overall, to step it up and be P3 was a step forward. Obviously not entirely happy because I wish I could have been fighting for pole position. But the truth is that Charles has been doing an outstanding job. The car has been amazing all this weekend and he managed to extract the most out of it. And yeah, I’m happy for him.
Yesterday, I looked very quick on the long run, so for some reason, this weekend, I’ve been struggling on the short runs, and the long run seemed much better, which is something we will need to look into, but I’m confident that tomorrow the pace in the long run will be good. It’s just a matter of track position here, and we’ve lost it with not a great quali position. But, you know, it’s Monaco. Anything can happen, like always, and we will give it our best shot, but the priority will be to win with Charles tomorrow.