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Norris bests Leclerc for Monaco GP pole
Lando Norris will start the Monaco Grand Prix from pole position ahead of 2024 winner Charles Leclerc in a thrilling conclusion to a tense qualifying session in Monte Carlo.
Norris and teammate Oscar Piastri emerged as the early favorites after provisionally locking out the front row with their first laps, the two split by just 0.067s but with almost 0.2s to the rest of the field.
McLaren then opted to send both out early for their final laps in a bid to avoid traffic and in a ploy to give both a third shot at pole around the sport’s shortest circuit. Again they were closely matched, with Norris still ahead of Piastri, but together they raised the bar even higher, stretching their margin to more than half a second over the chasing pack.
Leclerc, the defending Monaco winner, was undeterred. Having topped all three practice sessions, the Ferrari driver made a lunge for top spot. A purple middle sector got him there, pipping Norris by just 0.062s.
But the McLaren drivers had their bonus final laps up their sleeves, and immediately they started putting Leclerc back under pressure. Piastri started with a purple first sector, but his middle split wasn’t an improvement on his previous lap, and he failed to improve.
The door was wide open for Norris, who strung together two personal bests in the first two sectors to clinch top spot with a best time of 1m09.954s, a new track record around the storied streets of Monte Carlo.
It was also Norris’s first pole since the season-opening Australian Grand Prix, breaking a streak of inconsistent qualifying results that have left him on the back foot in the championship.
“It’s been a long time coming,” he said. “I feel good. I didn’t realize how good this would feel after a few struggles over the last couple of months. Especially here – Monaco is a beautiful place, the hardest track probably to do it, up against the hometown hero [Leclerc] as well.
“We’ve worked a lot this week – actually over the last few months – to get to a day like today. I’m very pleased.”
Leclerc was disappointed to miss out on a fourth Monaco pole, lamenting a traffic-affected first lap that left him lacking rhythm for his final attempt to take top spot.
“There’s always something more to be done, but at the end of the day this is the best we could do,” he said. “I think the lap was really good.
“I’m just very frustrated. We know we don’t have the car to go for wins this year, but this weekend the car felt good. Starting second here is going to be tricky to then take that first place.”
Piastri conceded beating his teammate was a bridge too far for him after a scrappy build-up to qualifying that left him bumping against the barriers regularly on his way to the battle for pole.
“I think I’ve hit more walls this weekend than I have in my whole career,” he said. “I’ve been untidy, just struggling to get into the groove a bit.
“The first lap felt good, and then on the second lap a mistake in the chicane left a little bit out there. To beat Lando today was going to be tough, so well done to him.
“It’s been a pretty messy weekend so far, so to come out with a lap that I thought was pretty good and third is a decent result.”
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Lewis Hamilton and Max Verstappen threatened to contend for pole but faded with their second runs. Hamilton improved only slightly to take fourth on the grid, 0.428s off the pole-getting pace, while Verstappen failed to improve with his second tour, leaving him fifth at a distant 0.715s.
Both will see the stewards after the session, with Hamilton alleged to have impeded Verstappen in Q1 at Massenet.
Isack Hadjar qualified a career-best sixth for Racing Bullas ahead of Fernando Alonso and Esteban Ocon, both of whom were making their second Q3 appearances of the year.
Liam Lawson qualified in the top 10 for the first time this season for the Racing Bulls team’s first double Q3 appearance of the year, while Alex Albon completed the top 10 for Williams.
Carlos Sainz was pipped to a spot in the top 10 by just 0.1s, though the Spaniard was bested by 0.63s by Q3-bound Albon.
Yuki Tsunoda qualified an unhappy 12th for Red Bull Racing. He was more than half a second slower than Verstappen in Q2 and will be the lowest placed Red Bull-backed driver on the grid.
Nico Hulkenberg was 13th for Sauber and slowest of the session.
Mercedes teammates George Russell and Andrea Kimi Antonelli were knocked out 14th and 15th in a dreadful afternoon for the German marque. Both made it through to Q2, but neither driver set a time.
Antonelli crashed at the chicane at the end of Q1, the Italian rookie clipping the apex barrier and breaking his front-left corner, which in turn sent him spearing out of control into the barrier.
Russell got only slightly further, getting as far as the first corner of Q2 before his car suddenly lost power riding a bump at Turn 1, Sainte Devote. The Briton freewheeled his Mercedes all the way down to the tunnel, where it ran out of momentum and triggered a red flag with just over 10 minutes remaining in the segment. Despite a series of switch changes via the steering wheel, the Briton couldn’t get his car running again, ending his qualifying session on the spot.
Gabriel Bortoleto qualified 16th ahead of Oliver Bearman, who was 17th fastest but will start last after serving his 10-place grid penalty for ignoring red flags in FP2.
Pierre Gasly will start 17th on a disappointing day for Alpine, the Frenchman more than 0.1s too slow for a Q2 berth. Franco Colapinto in the sister Alpine qualified 0.603s slower than Gasly in a performance that saw him last in the session, but penalties for others will promote him to 18th on the grid.
Lance Stroll qualified 19th and will start from that position despite serving a one-place grid penalty for causing a collision with Leclerc in FP1. However, the Canadian will also be investigated after the session for impeding Gasly out of the tunnel, which could increase his penalty load.
Bearman, with the more significant penalty, will start 20th and last.
UPDATE: Hamilton was subsequently given a three-place penalty.
Michael Lamonato
Having first joined the F1 press corps in 2012 by what he assumed was administrative error, Michael has since made himself one of the few Australian regulars in the press room. Graduating in print journalism and later radio, he worked his way from community media to Australia's ABC Grandstand as an F1 broadcaster, and his voice is now heard on the official Australian Grand Prix podcast, the F1 Strategy Report and Box of Neutrals. Though he'd prefer to be recognized for his F1 expertise, in parts of hometown Melbourne his reputation for once being sick in a kart will forever precede him.
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