ANALYSIS: What does the telemetry reveal about the fierce qualifying battle between Norris and Leclerc?
McLaren driver Lando Norris took pole position for the Monaco Grand Prix, fractionally beating home favourite Charles Leclerc in a nail-biting session in the Principality. F1Technical's senior writer Balazs Szabo delivers his latest analysis.
It’s taken 18 years but McLaren is back on pole position for the Monaco Grand Prix. The last time was back in 2007, courtesy of Fernando Alonso, and Lando Norris has now put McLaren on pole at Monte Carlo again after 18 years.
The Englishman was already quickest in Q2 and then did it again in Q3, snatching pole at the very last moment from the local hero Charles Leclerc. The McLaren man's time was a 1m09.954s, while the Ferrari driver posted a 1m10.063s. Norris’ time is a new outright lap record for this track, beating the 1m10.166s set by Lewis Hamilton in the Mercedes in 2019.
Third and fourth places went to their respective team-mates. Oscar Piastri third (1m10.129s) and Lewis Hamilton fourth (1m10.382s) which looked like a modified remake of last year here, when Leclerc was on pole with Carlos Sainz third and the McLarens second and fourth.
However the seven time world champion was later given a three place grid penalty, for impeding Max Verstappen which drops him to seventh. That promotes the Red Bull driver to the second row with his time of 1m10.669s.
Comparing the best laps of Charles Leclerc, Lando Norris and Max Verstappen, it emerges that the home favourite was for 39.4 per cent of the lap the quickest driver while Norris dominated 29.9 per cent of the Monte Carlo track. Despite his sizeable deficit from the pole time, Verstappen was the fastest racer for 30.6 per cent of the twisty and narrow circuit.
The Ferrari driver recorded the highest top speed with 290kph and dominated the end of the straights/full-throttle sections which saw him gain a huge chunk of time through the tunnel. This strong performance through the tunnel allowed Leclerc to set the quickest time in Sector 2.
Furthermore, the 27-year-old driver emerged as quickest through the frightening chicane that includes Turns 15 and 16 and he excelled through the last corner as well.
By contrast, Norris mastered Turn 1 which allowed him to gain further time up the hill before Leclerc started to dominate the end of this full-throttle section. Interestingly, the Briton was the fastest for most of the main straight, but Leclerc completed the last section of the start-finish straight the quickest.
Verstappen looked to be in contention for pole position in the opening stages of qualifying, but his pace faded when the McLarens and Ferraris picked up their performance.
However, the Dutchman was brilliant through the Fairmont hairpin which is the slowest corner of the entire F1 calendar and he was also impressive through the swimming pool.
