Formula 1 News: Leclerc wins pole for 2024 Monaco GP

Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc turned a lap of 1m10.270s to win the pole position for the 2024 Monaco GP F1 race.

–by Mark Cipolloni–

It was Leclerc’s third pole for the Monaco GP and his Ferrari teammate Carlos Sainz Jr. was 3rd, 0.248s behind Leclerc. Leclerc also topped FP2 and FP3.

“It was nice, the feeling after a qualifying lap is always special here<” said a happy Leclerc. “The excitement is so high, really happy with the lap. Now, I know more often than not qualifying is not everything here. It helps but we need to put everything together for Sunday, but we are a stronger team so we will. I need a great launch, hopefully Carlos can follow me through, and we can be 1-2 which will be an ideal scenario.”

“I think overall it was an improvement for me, as I’ve been struggling all weekend with the confidence in the car,” said Sainz. “Not entirely happy as I wish I could have been fighting for pole but Charles has been doing an amazing job.

“Yesterday, I looked very quick on the long runs so I’m confident tomorrow that the pace will be good, but it’s Monaco – anything can happen. We’ll give it our best shot.”

Oscar Piastri was 2nd in his McLaren, 0.154s behind Leclerc, once again out qualifying his McLaren teammate who was 4th. “If you took the second half of my first lap in Q3 and the first half of my second one, it would have been enough. But credit to Charles, he’s been incredibly quick all weekend, at times no one thought they’d get close to him.

“[Tomorrow] a good start always helps, if you can get into the lead you can control it but if not, a good strategy.”

George Russell was 5th for Mercedes, once again out qualifying his teammate Lewis Hamilton who was 7th. Russell leads that battle 7 to 1.

Max Verstappen glanced the Turn 1 wall on his final run and abandoned the lap and his chance to win a record 9 straight pole positions. He remains tied with Ayrton Senna with 8 straight and will start 6th on Sunday.

Everything eventually comes to an end, and this was always going to be a tough ask for Verstappen with a car that clearly doesn’t perform well around this track this year.

Sixth though, sixth is a very difficult slot to start in. There are some pretty fast cars ahead, and unless it rains, limited options on strategy.

How bad was the Red Bull around the streets of Monaco?

The 2nd Red Bull driver of Sergio Perez was eliminated in Q1 and will start 18th, risking his chances of continuing with Red Bull after this year.

Yuki Tsunoda, Alex Albon and Pierre Gasly rounded out the top-10.

This is the third time Leclerc has grabbed pole. But one of those he couldn’t even start the race, and the other he came home a gutting fourth.

Can he finally win from pole around the streets where he grew up? If he does, it will be a very famous victory indeed.

2024 Monaco GP Qualifying Results