Most F1 drivers are domiciled in Monaco, but only one of them can claim with any authority to actually own these streets.
Charles Leclerc, the most successful Monegasque of the championship era, marked his authority at this year’s Monaco Grand Prix with a totally dominant qualifying performance.
The fall of Sergio Pérez may have truncated the final challenges to his superiority, but neither Carlos Sainz nor Max Verstappen nor anyone else would come close to matching the local knowledge of Monte Carlo de Leclerc combined with that car so sweetly suited for the track.
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The only question now is whether it is enough to overcome the curse that has prevented him from finishing his home career throughout his career.
In this sense, there may be one last twist: the rain is on the radar and the field is full of desperate drivers hoping to seize the only opportunity to move to Monte Carlo.
LECLERC IN OWN CLASS
For the second season in a row, Charles Leclerc had secured pole position for his Grand Prix at home after an accident that ended Q3 prematurely.
Fortunately for him, this year’s accident was not his.
Instead, it was Sergio Pérez who packed his car in a clumsy accident in Mirabeau, turning back in a futile search for Leclerc’s deception on the makeshift post.
He really didn’t need to be bothered, because the Monegasque was in his own league all afternoon.
He had led the qualifying segment before gaining a nearly quarter-second lead in the pole vault. His last lap was 0.2 seconds longer at his best, and he estimated that he was approaching half a second up when the red flags flew and forced him to abandon the lap.
Pérez’s first sector is not even close to his teammate Carlos Sainz, who will join him in the front row, he could not touch it.
“She is OK. I’m incredibly happy, ”Leclerc told Sky Sports about his third straight pole of the season.
“This last lap before the red flag was very good … it was really on the edge.
“I had a bit of oversteer and it was difficult for me to put the tires in the right window in the last sector because there was a bit of traffic.
“The back was a little loose, but still the lap time came and I was improving a lot, I think I went four tenths faster before I stopped, so it was a good lap.
“It’s been a very quiet weekend so far. I knew the pace was in the car, I just had to get the job done and it went perfectly. ”
With qualifying more than halfway through the battle in Monaco, Leclerc is now on the verge of finally finishing his career at home, and does not accept his so-called Curse of Monaco, as he has not been able to finish his career at home. throughout his career. .
“I’m not at all superstitious,” he said. “So far we’ve had a quiet weekend and we start in the best possible place for tomorrow’s race, so we hope to have a clean race tomorrow and finally have a good result at home.”
Photo by ANDREJ ISAKOVIC / AFPSource: AFP
WILL PEREZ HAVE AN OPPORTUNITY TO HIRE?
Following the disappointment of being knocked out three times by his teammate Max Verstappen in Spain last week, Sergio Pérez has recovered strongly from being the dominant Red Bull Racing driver in Monaco.
The Mexican has struggled hard all weekend and overcame last training on Saturday morning to warn Ferrari that he was a pole rival. In the end, Leclerc was too strong, although he was only 0.028 seconds slower than Carlos Sainz in the battle for second place on the grid.
But the highlight was that he was ahead of Verstappen, and not only that, but in doing so he completed a clean sweep of the weekend by beating the Dutchman in every session so far.
His final drop in the standings was the only stain on his notebook, and assuming no damage was found that would have cost him a penalty on the pit-lane starting grid, Pérez is well on his way to applying his advantage to the race thanks to the difficulty of advancing. .
“Since FP1 we have always been in the top three,” said Pérez. “We were the fastest in FP3.
“In the end I got stuck with one of the Ferraris [Leclerc] and my last lap Q3 was the tires being too cold.
“Overall I felt the Ferraris were a little ahead this weekend, but we’ll see tomorrow. There is a long way to go.
“It simply came to our notice then. But overall it has been a very competitive weekend. “
AFP. – Picture of SEBASTIEN BOZON / AFPFont
But after last weekend’s nasty slight, Perez has to wonder if he will be allowed to finish ahead of Verstappen if he manages to stay third ahead of him off the line, especially if he is not able to challenge the Ferrari cars ahead and the team has little to compete with.
Before the weekend he was asked if he was free to compete with Verstappen for the victories, to which he replied: “It’s very clear, I didn’t have to say it, but it’s clear.
“I think next to me in the garage it’s clear, and inside the computer, otherwise I wouldn’t be here, so it’s pretty clear.”
We may find out how clear Sunday is quite clear.
DANIEL RICCIARDO, OH US
Daniel Ricciardo needed a clean Monaco Grand Prix weekend. You are not receiving any.
Although McLaren admitted that its accident on Friday had more to do with an overly aggressive set-up bet than a driver error, it was not possible to make up for lost time. This type of deficit always tends to expire in a place like Monte Carlo.
That damage worsened on Saturday afternoon, with another painful Q2 knockout, a humiliating 0.7 seconds slower than teammate Lando Norris.
There is no sugar to cover the result, and the shattered body language of the Australian once he finally got out of the car said it all.
Photo by ANDREJ ISAKOVIC / AFPSource: AFP
And on a worrying return to his darkest McLaren days, Ricciardo confessed that he was simply not sure where his pace had gone, having been optimistic on Saturday morning.
“Actually, no, to be honest,” he told Sky Sports when asked if he thought he had the pace to take turns during Q2. “You know when it comes together.”
“The FP3 was just trying to pick up the pace a bit and get back to speed, and then we also made some car changes for qualifying, and I think we were in a decent place.
“P1, I was taking some good steps [but] a few mistakes too. So I think when we put it all together, it really looked like we were there, let’s say competitive where it was.
“And then in the second quarter, you can only see in your delta, just don’t make the gains you should make with the evolution of the track and all that.”
“Ultimately, it becomes very difficult to feel where the limit is and how much more needs to be covered,” he said. “I don’t know what the word is. It’s frustrating.
“It’s just confusing, confusing not to take the kind of natural steps that are needed.”
Monte Carlo is not a place to try to build up broken trust, and without much luck and spectacular weather, Sunday looks like it will be another demoralizing day in Ricciardo’s renewed McLaren fall.
Getty Images – Picture of Clive Rose / Getty ImagesFont
MERCEDES CONFIDENT IN THE RAIN
Mercedes has oscillated between optimism and pessimism about Monaco since the team left Spain driven by its improvements, and its qualifying performance by the Principality showed its prudence as correct.
George Russell was the first driver to finish sixth, but was three-quarters of a second behind McLaren’s Lando Norris, putting Mercedes firmly in the middle of the field.
Lewis Hamilton was worse off, finishing eighth and another 0.4 seconds adrift. The Briton protested that Pérez’s red flag cost him places, but only rose 0.1 seconds from his best previous memory when the session was suspended, which would not have been enough to save the 0.3 second difference. with Fernando Alonso in front of him.
But Russell is still considered to be within walking distance at the right opportunity, and says his team will be aiming for some high-risk strategies on Sunday, especially if there is rain, to regain ground.
“If you had told me P6 over the weekend, I wouldn’t have been too pleased,” he said. “But I think my lap was very strong, probably one of the strongest laps I’ve done in the classification all year.
“This is what we need in this situation, high risk, high reward.
“We have to go for it. If we lose a P5 or a P6, it’s not ideal but it’s not the end of the world. We want to put everything at stake and go for the victory.
“I’ll accept some rain.”
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And rain is the word on everyone’s lips. The skies opened after qualifying to liven up the Formula 2 speed race, and the official F1 forecast is a 60 percent chance of showers on Sunday, and the weather is expected to arrive around 10 p.m. morning and lasts until early in the evening.
Mixed conditions are one of the few ways in which the Monaco Grand Prix tends to provoke genuinely unpredictable action, and a variable prognosis will be music to the ears of not only Mercedes drivers, but also the fallen Ricciardo and a couple of pilots out of position. .
Pierre Gasly is the most disappointed of them after the 17th classification: maybe he was one second away from marking his fastest lap in Q1 when a strange red flag was thrown because his teammate received a harmless puncture .
Valtteri Bottas also expected a lot more from the weekend, but the loss of training time due to engine problems affected the classification and left him 12th with a car that he thought could add important points this weekend.
12th.