Monaco GP - Qualifying

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Monaco GP

Qualifying 

May 25, 2024

Ferrari's Leclerc on pole at Monaco GP, Piastri second, Sainz third

Charles Leclerc has secured pole position for the Monaco Grand Prix, narrowly beating McLaren's Oscar Piastri by 0.154 seconds in the qualifying session.

Max Verstappen, who leads the championship, will start from sixth position after a significant slide at the first corner during his final lap forced him to abandon his attempt, narrowly avoiding a collision with the wall. This result ends Verstappen's streak of eight consecutive pole positions, leaving him just one short of surpassing Ayrton Senna's record for the most consecutive poles.

This marks Leclerc's third pole position at his home Grand Prix, though he has yet to achieve a podium finish at Monaco due to a series of unfortunate events. In 2021, he suffered a driveshaft failure en route to the starting grid, and in 2022, a strategic error by Ferrari resulted in him finishing fourth.

Reflecting on his performance, Leclerc said, "The feeling after a qualifying lap is always very special here so I'm really happy about the lap. ... However, I know from the past that qualifying is not everything. As much as it helps for Sunday's race, we need to put everything together.

He added, "In the past years we haven't managed to do so. We are a stronger team, we are in a stronger position, and I'm sure we can achieve great things tomorrow, and the win is a target."

When asked about his strategy for winning on Sunday, Leclerc stated, "I need a good launch off the grid and hopefully if we do that Carlos can have a great start and follow me into Turn 1 and be one-two, and if it's a one-two we can manage the lap as a team -- that would be the perfect scenario, but whatever happens we just need to bring that victory home."

Leclerc's teammate Carlos Sainz will start third, with the other McLaren of Lando Norris in fourth after a late attempt in qualifying that didn't improve his position

Sainz commented post-qualifying "I think overall it was an improvement for me -- I've been

struggling all weekend with confidence and feeling with the car. So to step it up and be P3 was a step forward. [Although I'm] not entirely happy because I wish I could have been fighting for pole position.

"Charles has been doing an outstanding job and the car has been amazing all this weekend and he managed to extract the most of it, so I'm happy for him."

Sainz is also under investigation for allegedly blocking Alex Albon's Williams during Q1.

George Russell will start fifth, just ahead of Verstappen, while Lewis Hamilton will line up in seventh.

Both Haas cars will begin the race from the pit lane due to a technical regulation breach. Kevin Magnussen and Nico Hulkenberg's cars were found to have a DRS gap exceeding the maximum allowed 85 mm, leading to their disqualification from qualifying. Hulkenberg originally qualified 12th and Magnussen 15th.

An FIA report explained that the team misunderstood where to measure the gap with their new wing design, which led to non-compliance, "The team explained that this was the consequence of an inadvertent error on their part in setting the wing flap gap," the report said. "The wing used was a new design that was used for the first time in Monaco. The old design was set to be compliant with the regulations with the largest gap measured from the centre of the wing.

"Under the new design, the largest gap was at the extremities of the wing but the team had not trained its mechanics to set the gap per the new design, resulting in the non-compliance."

Yuki Tsunoda of RB will start in eighth place, followed by Alex Albon in ninth and Alpine's Pierre Gasly in tenth.

Esteban Ocon narrowly missed out on Q3 and will start 11th for Alpine, with Hulkenberg in 12th. Daniel Ricciardo will begin 13th for RB, just ahead of Aston Martin's Lance Stroll in 14th and Magnussen in 15th.

Fernando Alonso was eliminated in Q1, missing the cut for Q2 by 0.142 seconds. He will start 16th, followed by Williams' Logan Sargeant, who outqualified Sergio Perez's Red Bull. Perez struggled throughout the session, ending up over half a second off the pace after clipping the wall at Turn One during his fast lap.

The back row of the grid will be occupied by the two Sauber drivers, with Valtteri Bottas starting 19th and Zhou Guanyu in 20th, more than a second off the pace in Q1.

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Monaco GP 2024 Qualifying Results

Disqualified from Q1

16. Sergio Pérez, Red Bull (1:12.060)

17. Valtteri Bottas, Sauber (1:12.512)

18. Zhou Guanyu, Sauber (1:13.028)

19. Nico Hülkenberg, Haas (1:11.440)

20. Kevin Magnussen, Haas (1:11.725)

Disqualified from Q2

11. Esteban Ocon, Alpine (1:11.285)

12. Daniel Ricciardo, RB (1:11.482)

13. Lance Stroll, Aston Martin (1:11.563)

14. Fernando Alonso, Aston Martin (1:12.019)

15. Logan Sargeant, Williams (1:12.020)

Top 10 Qualifying from Monaco GP 2024

1. Charles Leclerc, Ferrari (1:10.270)

2. Oscar Piastri, McLaren (1:10.424)

3. Carlos Sainz, Ferrari (1:10.518)

4. Lando Norris, McLaren (1:10.542)

5. George Russell, Mercedes (1:10.543)

6. Max Verstappen, Red Bull (1:10.567)

7. Lewis Hamilton, Mercedes (1:10.621)

8. Yuki Tsunoda, RB (1:10.858)

9. Alexander Albon, Williams (1:10.948)

10. Pierre Gasly, Alpine (1:11.311)