Charles Leclerc will start in the lead in Monaco
Imperial on his rock: Monegasque Charles Leclerc will start in the lead position for the Monaco Grand Prix on Sunday to try to take over the reins of the F1 World Championship from his rival Max Verstappen, 4th after qualifying.
“It’s very special, I’m successful happy. The weekend has gone well so far, the last lap before the red flag was really good”, welcomed the local child who will start in front of his teammate at Ferrari, the Spaniard Carlos Sainz, second. .
The Quebecer Lance Stroll (Aston Martin) will start again from the bottom of the grille.
A red flag indeed came to put a premature end to the last qualifying session, cut short after the crash against the safety barriers of the Mexican Sergio Pérez, struck in stride by Sainz at the entrance to the famous tunnel, a few moments from the end.
“It’s quite damaged and what made it worse was the hit we gave Carlos, so we don’t have a lot of damage. But we’ll see, I think it should be fine for tomorrow,” Pérez explained.
Third place in this 7th round of the season still goes to the Mexican, ahead of his teammate at Red Bull, the Dutchman Max Verstappen, currently leader of the championship.
“I don’t think pole was in our reach today, Charles was strong, it’s a shame because I think our two drivers could have improved a bit,” admitted Red Bull boss Christian Horner. .
On the Monegasque track, which is not conducive to overtaking in the narrow streets, the positions on the grid are crucial, even if the rain could arrive at the start of the race on Sunday.
After six rounds (four won by Verstappen, two by Leclerc), the reigning world champion is barely six lengths ahead of the Monegasque in the drivers’ standings.
Among the constructors, Red Bull is currently ahead of Ferrari by 26 points, buoyed by its 44 points in the last round in Spain last week.
Finally the good one?
Before wanting to win at home tomorrow, the challenge for Leclerc will be above all to finish the race.
Until now, “his” circuit has never really smiled on him since at home, the Monegasque has always had to give up since 2017 after technical problems or clashes.
Like Pérez on Saturday afternoon, Leclerc, in the last seconds of qualifying in 2021, made a mistake and damaged his car.
Just before the start the next day, during the warm-up laps, the ax fell: the Ferrari had its transmission shaft affected and the Monegasque was not going to be able to contest his GP at home when he had taken pole.
“I hope I can finally finish this Grand Prix at home,” he whispered before this weekend.
At the start of the race tomorrow at 3:00 p.m., Briton Lando Norris (McLaren) will start from the third row alongside his compatriot George Russell (Mercedes), 6th in qualifying.
Will follow the Spaniard Fernando Alonso (Alpine), 7th, the Briton Lewis Hamilton (Mercedes), 8th, the German Sebastian Vettel (Aston Martin), 9th and the French Esteban Ocon (Alpine), 10th.
Earlier in qualifying, the first part (Q1) was interrupted a few minutes by a red flag after the Japanese Yuki Tsunoda (AlphaTauri) hit a safety barrier.
To the grandmother of his teammate, the French Pierre Gasly, in good shape since the start of the weekend, but who suffered the full brunt of the arrival of this flag. He was unable to complete his last fast lap to join the second part of qualifying and will start Sunday from 17th position.