Everything Trackside

Driven by the fans, for the fans

2024 Monaco GP: Pole for Charles Leclerc, the prince of Monaco

Jamie Cooper Avatar
Jamie Cooper

Photo Credit: Scuderia Ferrari HP

It was time for the much awaited Formula 1 Qualifying session in Monaco. With the sun out, drivers will be keen on making their mark in today’s qualifying session.

A queue has formed at the end of the pit lane. The Q1 session will see the slowest five cars drop out. Similarly, Q2, will eliminate five more drivers, leaving the top 10 to battle for pole position in the 12-minute Q3 session.

The biggest question for this session is whether it will be pole for Charles Leclerc.

Q1 begins!

Drivers have free tire choice today, but most will opt for the softs. The medium tires are unlikely to be used as they take too long to warm up, posing a risk with traffic.

The lights went green and the queue of cars began to filter out onto the track. While in the pit lane, drivers are permitted to create a bit of a gap, but this is not allowed once they cross the pit lane exit.

Mercedes were the first to head out. Both drivers on a fresh set of softs. They are followed by Logan Sargeant, Daniel Ricciardo and Alex Albon.

After his incident in FP3, Valtteri Bottas joined the action, so Sauber was able to get his car ready.

The Ferrari drivers were the last to head out. With fifteen minutes to go, they stayed in their garage, allowing the queue to clear before finally setting off on their out-laps. It seemed like many others were fuelled heavy and going for multiple push runs. These initial times appeared to be warm-up laps, not genuine attempts.

Lewis Hamilton set a time of 1m 12.954s, which was significantly slower than both FP2 and FP3. With twelve left, Hülkenberg posted a genuine time of 1m 12.416s, a tenth, and a half clear of his teammate. Piastri moved into third, ahead of Verstappen and Stroll.

Oscar Piastri makes his presence known

Piastri set a 1m 11.881s, which is half a second off last year’s pole time. He’s two-tenths up on Verstappen’s marker. Meanwhile, Leclerc moved to ninth, and the cameras caught the Ferrari driver with something lodged in his front wing.

Piastri led from Hamilton, with Russell in third and Sainz in fourth ahead of Verstappen. A few drivers started to come in to change tyres. The drivers in danger were Tsunoda, Ricciardo, Sargeant, Bottas, and Zhou.

Magnussen’s lap on fresh softs showed the field that no one was safe that day. Everyone except Leclerc and Verstappen were out on a second set of tyres as a result.

With two minutes to go, Pérez was in trouble. The Mexican driver made 14th — that was not enough, but he got around for one last go. Alonso in p13 wasn’t safe, Ricciardo — a former race winner here — needed a lap, and Norris was still in the drop zone.

There was a traffic jam through the final corner. This wasn’t ideal preparation for anyone, as tyres were cooling while they all tried to create a gap.

The clock hit zero, but so many laps were still to come in. Sargeant had taken the flag in P14, so he likely hadn’t done enough, as Albon placed fourth. Sainz improved to third, and it was all eyes on Norris.

Lando Norris jumped to ninth, booting Fernando Alonso out of Q1.

Eliminated: Alonso, Sargeant, Pérez, Bottas and Zhou

Green light for Q2

Nico Hülkenberg was the first driver to hit the track.

One important thing to note from Q1 — Leclerc and Verstappen got through using just one set of tyres.

Stroll had just come out, which meant every car on the track.

Hamilton, Sainz, Russell, and Piastri were all on used tyres for this first run — if they could make this work and only use one set of new tyres here, they might be able to save a set for Q3.

Max Verstappen set a 1m 11.019s, the fastest lap of the weekend so far. Sainz’s P2 time was on used tyres, so that was very decent.

Alpine looked good here, as they did last year. Esteban Ocon was fourth, and Pierre Gasly had just improved to sixth. There were spots in Q3 available today for the midfield, with Alonso and Pérez already out.

Hamilton went third. But that position didn’t last long, as Piastri had just gone top with a 1m 10.756s, and Russell went second — having been behind his teammate all weekend, now Russell had joined the party.

Leclerc shot into P2, while Norris was in P10, on a hot lap. McLaren came alive.

Norris put on a fourth set of tyres, but had a 0.024s gap to Piastri.

Eliminated: Ocon, Hülkenberg, Ricciardo, Stroll and Magnussen

Top 10 shoot out

The tyres had been difficult to get into the working window, according to James Vowles, and the track temperature was dropping by about three degrees.

With just eight minutes to go, Leclerc shot to the top, and it was a 1m 10.418s for him. Piastri couldn’t match it; he went second by just 0.026s. Sainz went third, Russell fourth, and Norris fifth ahead of Hamilton.

They all headed back to the pits to swap for fresh boots. Keep an eye on Norris; he managed to beat Hamilton despite not having new softs for that run.

Albon led the pack back out on new tires.

Sainz emerged next, followed by Verstappen, Hamilton, and Russell. They aimed to avoid any late yellow flags, knowing the track wouldn’t be at its peak.

Gasly followed, ahead of Tsunoda, Leclerc, and Piastri. Albon secured seventh on his fresh softs run.

The final moments

In the final moments, there was a flurry of activity with drivers setting purple sectors. Russell shone in the first sector, securing third place. Meanwhile, Hamilton improved to fifth, but Verstappen’s radio call revealed he had hit the wall.

Leclerc delivered an even faster lap, leaving Piastri trailing in second. Verstappen aborted his lap, and Sainz claimed third. The spotlight turned to Norris, who secured fourth place.

Pole for Charles Leclerc!

And that is pole for Charles Leclerc in his home race!

Could this mark the end of Monaco’s curse?

Charles Leclerc’s exceptional lap time of 1m 10.270s secured his third pole position on home soil, with Piastri trailing by a significant margin.

Piastri lined up alongside Leclerc on the front row, with Sainz and Norris behind. Russell secured fifth, outperforming Verstappen.

Verstappen’s lap was marred by a brush with the wall, and he continued to express dissatisfaction with his car’s performance. The RB20 seemed particularly challenging to handle this weekend.

Charles Leclerc on pole | Photo Credit: Formula 1 | X