24/05/2025
NEWS STORY
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, while today the star in the Principality was Lando Norris. 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: Lando's time was a 1'09"954, while the Ferrari driver posted a 1'10"063. Norris' time is a new outright lap record for this track, beating the 1'10"166 set by Lewis Hamilton in the Mercedes in 2019. The second row is shared by the other McLaren and Ferrari drivers, with Oscar Piastri third in 1'10"129 and Lewis Hamilton fourth in 1'10"382. It's a reversal of how the front two rows looked last year when Leclerc was on pole, his then team-mate Carlos Sainz third, with the two McLarens in second and fourth places.
The Pirelli Pole Position Award was presented to Norris by the South Korean actor, Lee Jung-jae. The role that brought him fame on a global scale was the lead in the Nextflix series "Squid Game," but he has also appeared in the Disney+ series, "Star Wars: The Acolyte." His role in "Squid Game" brought Lee nominations for Golden Globe, Emmy and Screen Actors Guild Awards.
In the third free practice session, all the drivers continued working on performance and on gaining maximum confidence in pushing their cars to the very limit on this track. Almost all of them only used the C6 compound tyre, but the six drivers from Red Bull, Aston Martin and Sauber also used a set of Mediums each. The Hard also put in an appearance but only for the usual scrubbing-in lap with five drivers: Hamilton, Stroll, Alonso, Lawson and Hadjar. It's worth noting that the Aston Martin duo, the devotees of this practice, also did the same with their second set of Hards and one of Medium.
In qualifying, the chart summing up tyre usage features several splashes of yellow among a sea of red. In fact, eight drivers used a set of Mediums: Leclerc (Q2), Hamilton (Q2), Russell (Q2), Alonso (Q2), Colapinto (Q1), Gasly (Q1), Ocon (Q3), Sainz (Q2), Albon (Q2 e Q3).
Mario Isola: "What a qualifying session! Saturday in Monaco always delivers plenty of excitement and that was the case once again today. For us, it was very interesting to see how the C6 performed in qualifying again and I believe we can say that, on this track, the softest compound in the 2025 range offered a little something extra in terms of performance compared to the C5. We're definitely not talking about a big difference, around a tenth of a second or so, a tenth and a half, but it was definitely there. Yes, we saw some drivers using the Medium in qualifying which confirms the performance gap is not that big and also, as we saw last week in Imola, that in some situations, the C5 can offer greater confidence compared to its softer sibling, something that takes on great importance at this track. Usually, Sunday can be less exciting than Saturday in Monaco, but I think that this time we can expect a different afternoon's action to usual.
"In terms of strategy, tomorrow's race will be a one-off. The changes to the Sporting Regulations introduced specifically for this Grand Prix require the use of at least three sets of tyres, which means anything is possible in terms of the pit stop windows, given that there really are so many theoretical possibilities, not to mention appearances from the Safety Car being quite likely at this track. All three compounds will come into play: in fact, drivers from three teams, Red Bull, Racing Bulls and Sauber, only have one set of Hard tyres and one of Medium, so they are bound to have to use the C6 during the race.
"We know how good the teams are when it comes to exploiting any opportunity presented by the regulations, so we can expect some surprises, including in terms of stint lengths."
Check out our Saturday gallery from Monaco here.