Charles Leclerc produced the perfect lap at his home race in Monaco, where harmony between driver, car and track is essential in the pursuit of success.
This was the most important Saturday of the Formula 1 season. Qualifying is crucial at the unique Monaco Grand Prix because overtaking is near-impossible. Grid position is everything.
The feeling of completing a lap here, of being pushed to the limit as tyres brush the barriers, is an adrenaline rush that stands alone in a sport that demands the extremes of human performance.
Leclerc got it right, beating Oscar Piastri by 0.154sec, and the excitement was still flowing as the Ferrari driver attempted to put the achievement into words. Get it wrong, as several others did, and a night awaits of wondering what could have been. It is no fun on Sunday staring at the rear wing of the car in front.
Leclerc, having dominated the practice sessions this weekend, claimed his third pole position at this circuit. His races in Monaco have been somewhat cursed, however, and he avoided any thoughts that victory was almost guaranteed.
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Almost everything that can go wrong has gone wrong in the past for Leclerc here. He has had two DNFs after crashing. He did not even start the race in 2021 after a mechanical issue on the way to the start line. And a Ferrari strategy error and a grid penalty hampered his progress too.
“Once you finish a lap and you hear that you are on pole position it is a very special feeling,” he said. “However, maybe in the past the emotions were staying for longer, now having started twice on pole and not getting the victory, which at the end is most important, is where my mind is at the moment.
McLaren, who have been the primary competitor to Max Verstappen in recent weeks, again looked quick, with Piastri in second and Lando Norris in fourth. “It is Monaco and anything can happen,” Carlos Sainz, who qualified third but faces an investigation for allegedly impeding Alex Albon, who impressed for Williams, securing ninth. Mercedes, for whom the unique circuit layout minimised pace deficiencies, qualified in fifth (George Russell) and seventh (Lewis Hamilton).
Verstappen, the championship leader by 48 points, had managed to wrestle back control of his Red Bull in Imola last week, having struggled through practice sessions. This time there was no miracle solution, and his warning that Ferrari were “miles ahead” proved accurate, qualifying only sixth. He had secured seven from seven pole positions this season until Monaco.
He had complained he was bouncing “like a kangaroo” in the car on Friday, struggling with the middle sector of the lap which involves riding over the twists and kerbs, which does not suit the Red Bull design.
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His final, crucial lap was abandoned after hitting the wall in the first turn. “This car is so slippery,” he complained, while the fans cheered as they realised that on this occasion there would be no last-gasp triumph for Verstappen, who had been looking to break the record for consecutive pole positions.
“We tried a lot of things on the car,” Verstappen said. “Literally nothing made it better. So then you’re just stuck. There’s not much you can do. The car is like a go-kart. It is like I’m running without suspension, it’s just jumping around a lot. It’s also not something new, we’ve had this problem since 2022.
“The last years we had a car advantage so it gets masked a little bit because we gain in the corners…with everyone catching up, naturally when you’re not improving your weakest point, you get found out. That’s what happened this weekend. It is a fundamental problem, it is not something that will be fixed in weeks.”
Daniel Ricciardo, who won this race in 2018, explained on Thursday that given the present generation of cars, running particularly low to the ground and with sizeable front wings, drivers cannot even see the apex of turn eight and the last corner of the last lap. They are relying on an innate sense of feel in the car, judging tiny margins barely visible. Given the narrow circuit and the difficulties overtaking, the first section of qualifying, when all 20 cars are on the track, can easily resemble a rather high-end car park.
Traffic navigation is critical and both Sergio Pérez, Verstappen’s team-mate, and Fernando Alonso, the experienced Aston Martin driver, were eliminated after Q1, failing to find the perfect window to produce a quick and clean lap. “What a joke,” Pérez complained on team radio, feeling the pressure with his future at Red Bull still not secured for next season, having qualified in 18th. From there, Monaco will not feel quite so magical.
