Digging a Bit Deeper Into Qualy

Or how Albon and Verstappen flourished and their teammates floundered

Curiosity got the better of me and I decided to look at the laps that saw Yuki Tsunoda and Carlos Sainz fall by the wayside while their teammates found time and moved to the last stage of Qualifying for the Monaco GP.

But, to start, we will look at the fight at the front between Lando Norris and Charles Leclerc.

Fighting For Pole

Pole position is extremely valuable in Monaco, obviously. If you hold your ground into the first turn, your attempt at converting pole into a win becomes a LOT easier. It is the hardest track to overtake by far, and the car ahead can have someone in their DRS for the entire race without worrying too much. The leading driver only needs to defend out of the tunnel, into Turn 1, and maybe into Rascasse if they give the trailing car a chance due to a bad Swimming Pool section.

Hold on to first place at the start, and things look rosy.

Qualify second and fail to jump the driver starting on pole, and you could be looking at nearly 80 laps of misery.

Oscar Piastri, the driver currently leading the championship and on a mighty run of form, did not get on top of his McLaren enough to challenge. Meanwhile, Lewis Hamilton is still having trouble with the Ferrari to match Leclerc driving around his hometown.

After Leclerc’s final attempt, the Monégasque driver held pole position with a mighty lap. Norris and Piastri, however, had left the pits for their second runs with enough time to do one flying lap, cool the tyres, and go again before the flag dropped.

It was a genius move by McLaren and frustrated the local fans.

Norris snatched pole away from Leclerc at the gong, setting the first ever sub-70 second lap at Monaco in the process, and will have the advantage at the start tomorrow.

Yes, we all know the “Lando and starting on pole” meme. But, obviously, if you are reading this, you care about the facts, so here they are:

The cars make their time in different ways, so Norris leads after Turn 1, but Leclerc grabs back a heap of time through the twisty bits, reaching half a second worth of advantage at Turn 6.