Leclerc, pole in Monaco and Sainz will start third; Alonso, stuck in traffic

They say third time’s the charm. And maybe it is for Charles Leclerc. The Monegasque pilot signed his third post at homein his streets Monaco native, where he finally wants to end the curse that haunts him on this mythical track where he has dreamed of winning many times. The Monegasque driver wants to achieve his first victory in the Principality, in front of fans dedicated to the goal after such bad luck.

In Monaco, almost everything is pole. Almost three quarters of victory. Only chaos or disaster can remove your success from that first place. Charles knows this well, who will start first this Sunday with more lessons learned after defeating a very good Oscar Piastri (at 0″154) and a Carlos Sainz who was able to improve in a weekend full of difficulties until he was third to go for the podium (at 0″248). Fourth was Norris (0.272, a thousand ahead of Russell (5th) and Max Verstappen made his second mistake of the year, something strange.

Verstappen touched the wall

The Dutchman suffered a lot in the slow corners (5 and 10) of Monaco and he paid for it, he had to risk too much and in his last attempt he hit the wall, having to abort his turn in the 6 grid positions. The champion went all out and was not only left without the prize of a place where he could qualify for the podium. He made his life complicated by wanting to defeat ‘Principino’.

Leclerc, against his oath

Every time Charles went to the Monaco Casino, he ended up on the wrong color on the roulette wheel. He never had any luck. In his 5 Monaco Grands Prix in F1, he did not finish on the podium despite having very fast cars in which he could go for victory. There is always something going on with him. He went down three times. Even in 2017, in his F2 year, in which he won the title, he abandoned two race weekends.

In 2018, with Alfa Romeo, he had to retire due to a brake problem that caused an accident. In 2019, he was eliminated from Q2 by surprise in his Ferrari. He took the pole in 2021 and 2022, but both times, he was left wanting again. On the first of those two occasions, he took pole after his good attempt in Q3 and an accident on his second lap that prevented Verstappen from trying to take first place from him. But the smiles turned to tears the next day because of the damage caused by that impact. He had to retire due to a gearbox problem before the start of the race.

And in 2022, when it seemed like yes, finally, history repeated itself. During the race the rain came and changed everything. Ferrari’s strategy and his poor reading of the race (unlike Sainz) prevented him from maintaining first place and he ended up in a rage. He escaped again in a 4th position while his teammate Sainz came close to winning with an excellent second place.

Leclerc, unbeatable and Sainz is 3rd

This time, at least for now, Charles seems to have bought all the tickets for the victory that finally lies ahead. The Monegasque even saved some delicate situations before fate abandoned him again. In Q1, on a track that was improving a lot and there was a lot of traffic, he found a good gap at the end to make the cut.

“Someone moved the pedals,” Leclerc said as he began his first attempt at Q3. It might have knocked his confidence, but he chose it and set the best time on his first attempt. A good time to beat by 26 thousandths Piastre. And on the second turn, Charles doubled his bet and saw how it went this time Verstappen the one who suffered the bad luck of holding the protections. The Dutchman had the worse car on this special track and Charles He was 10 all weekend. Now, he has to do it in the race. You know that on this track, until the last lap you won’t be able to take it for granted.

Ferrari will start the race with a big chance of a double podium but they will have to fight McLaren. They will be able to do this after a very good improvement of Carlos Sainz. The Madrid native suffered more than expected on Friday, inexplicably riding on the ground where he had problems at Imola. a few days ago. And in Free Practice 3 he was 6 tenths behind Charles. It seemed too high for the Madrid native in the very tight grid, but he managed to save the tools with a step forward in ‘qualifying’ which allowed him to finish 3rd.

Alonso, 16th and Pérez, 18th

Fernando Alonso finished 16th in a classification where he had to aim for more. At the end of Q1, the man from Oviedo was in a dangerous position because of how much the track had progressed. He had to try on his last lap, but he encountered a group of slow cars in the third sector which caused him to lose time. He will start 16th with very few options for points.

For his part, ‘Checo’ Pérez was another of the negative surprises. With a Red Bul that suffered more than expected at this track, it was 18th after failing to make the cut. He would leave it too far.