Monaco Practice and Qualifying

Walls, winglets and weekend pressure — Monaco reminded everyone why there is no room for error. Mohan takes you through the stories that could define Sunday’s race.

Transcript

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Good morning racing fans. This is Mohan bringing you a quick box box box update from Monaco where the build-up to the Grand Prix has just given us just about everything you expect from the streets of Monte Carlo. History, pressure, close walls, red flags, upgrades, and a qualifying session where every tenth mattered. This weekend marks another special chapter in Monaco's Formula One history, with the race being spoken about as the 71st running in the modern championship era, depending on how you count the event's history. Either way, Monaco remains one of the jewels of the calendar. Short, narrow, unforgiving, and absolutely brutal if you are even slightly out of rhythm. It is also a landmark weekend for McLaren with the team celebrating its thousandth Grand Prix. Fittingly, McLaren's very first Formula One race was also at Monaco back in 1966. So this is a nice full circle feel to the weekend. But on the track, it has not quite been the celebration that they would have wanted. Before we get to the running, there was also big news off the track with Charles Leclerc signing a new multi-year extension with Ferrari ahead of his home race. For Leclerc, Monaco is already emotional enough, but arriving here with his Ferrari future locked in added another layer to what was already a huge weekend for him. In free practice one, it was Leclerc who set the early benchmark. Ferrari looked immediately comfortable with LeClerc fastest ahead of Hamilton, making it a Ferrari 1-2 and was tapped third. But it was not a clean session. LeKerc had an early lockup and had to reverse out while Hajar hit the barriers at swimming pool, bringing out the red flags. Later on, debris from Alonso's front wing crash caused another red flag after he clipped the barriers coming out of the tunnel. So from the very first hour, Monaco has already reminding everyone how quickly a tidy lap can become a damaged car. Free practice too belonged to Ferrari again, but this time it was Hamilton on top. He set the pace ahead of LeClerc, with Verstappen again close behind in third. Hamilton looked quick, but he also had a couple of lively moments through the swimming pool section, which is exactly the sort of place where confidence and consequences sit right next to each other. There's also plenty of technical interest up and down the pit lane. Monaco has also always brings high down force packages, but this year McLaren and Mercedes-Benz were among the teams looking at extra wing-lex solutions rather than relying purely on the rear wing. Around the Monaco track, the aim is simple: maximize the load, traction and confidence through the slow corners because straight line efficiency matters far less here than getting the car rotated around the stable around and being stable around parts of the track. In free practice 3, the picture shifted. Kimi and Tanelli put Mercedes on top with the fastest lap of the weekend up to that point ahead of the two Ferrari drivers. That was a significant warning shot given that Ferrari had owned Friday. But Mercedes had clearly found something overnight. Then we moved on to the qualifying sessions. In Q1, Leclerc was fastest again and topped the segment. But the story was traffic pressure and a late red flag. Bortoletto hit the barriers at the Nouvelle Chicane, which stopped the session and created a short frantic final run for those near the drop zone. The drivers knocked out in Q1 were Erkon, Perez, Bierman, Bottas, Alonso, and Stroll. This actually compounded a tough day for Haas, Cadillac, and Aston Martin. And remind and was a reminder that Monaco, even for experienced drivers, can find themselves boxed in by timing and traffic. Q2 then raised the pace again. Verstappen went fastest with the 112.499, showing that Red Bull were very much in the fight. Antonelli was right there as well, while Hajah produced an impressive lap to put the second Red Bull near the sharp end of the grid. But there were also some notable exits in Q2. Both Williams drivers missed out. Halkenberg was out in 13th. Colopinto, Lindblad, and Bortoletto, because of his Q1 crash, did not make the cutoff. Then came Q3. This was a proper Monaco qualifying theatre. On the first runs, Antonelli was fastest, but Verstappen was only one thousandth of a second behind. LeKirk initially struggled to get a representative lap together, aborting his runs and Dean having to deal with traffic before he finally delivered a lap good enough for the provisional pole for a moment. It looked like the home hero might start on pole. But then Verstappen went quicker and finally Antonil produced the lap that mattered most of a 112.051 to take pole by just 43 thousandths of a second. Verstappen will start second, Hamilton third, and Leclerc fourth after clipping the wall late in the session and damaging his Ferrari. Behind them, Hajar was fifth, Russell sixth, not having a particularly good weekend overall, with the McLaren of Piastri and Norris lining up at 7th and 8th. So what does this all mean for race day? As we all know, Monaco and Monaco pole is always powerful. Antonelli has track position, and if he gets to a centerboard cleanly, he can control the pace of the race. Verstepan coming sitting at second will be dangerous, especially at the start. And we do know how the Ferraris come off the line as well. So for McLaren sitting 7th and 8th is not an ideal thousandth Grand Prix weekend. They will probably need some strategy, definitely better the strategy than the previous race. Some good timing and perhaps some well-timed safety cards to benefit them. So that sets us up beautifully. Antonellion Paul will step in alongside him, Hamilton and Leclerc waiting behind. And Monaco always ready to punish anyone that gets it wrong. We'll be watching closely, and I'll look forward to speaking to you again on the other side of this race.