How Norris beat Leclerc to pole for F1’s Monaco GP

Deep breath on the way out of the Rascasse; you won’t have another for the next 70 seconds.

The spectacle of qualifying at Monaco is underrated. Pure, primal, tooth-clenching commitment meets surgical precision for a flurry of kerb-hopping, wall-scraping daredevilry that juxtaposes against the serenity of the yachts, tousled by the faintest waves in the harbour. Add a legitimate battle for pole to that, and it’s an utterly absorbing spectacle.

Pole felt like Charles Leclerc’s to lose. As it happened, Lando Norris found respite from his recent Saturday hoodoo to put a tenth over the hometown hero, grabbing his first pole since Australia and arguably one of the most important he’s ever managed during his time in F1. The anticipation of chaos precedes Sunday’s Monaco Grand Prix, owing to tactical wildcards expected to be played thanks to the addition of a second mandatory pitstop, but Norris will hope to prevail. He’s in the best place to manage that, after all.

While disappointed, Leclerc felt that he was in for a tougher time in qualifying proper having led all three practice sessions through the weekend. The Ferrari driver reckoned he was genuinely pushing on his final FP3 lap, and noted in his review of the other drivers’ efforts that they’d not been pushing the boundaries quite as much. Thus, he surmised, there was more to come from McLaren later on Saturday afternoon.

Had Norris not taken his C6 tyres to a second tour at the end of Q3, he’d have lost out to Leclerc by just 0.062s. Instead, the second push lap fared even better; Norris swept to a 1m09.954s to break Monegasque hearts, and eliciting a guttural roar from McLaren CEO Zak Brown – who chose to skip attending the Indy 500 to watch his team in more confined environs.

What will stick between Leclerc’s teeth is that he was up on Norris’ delta before Rascasse. There had been an ebb and flow to the overall lap, but Leclerc had found an advantage over the second sector which dissipated into the final clutch of corners.

From the broad-strokes delta we can see across the lap above, Norris had carried a small advantage to the tune of around half a tenth out of Turn 1, but this was an advantage that slowly began to evaporate on the climb towards Massenet. By the middle of the left-hander, Leclerc was level with the McLaren and then nosed ahead on the exit of Casino Square.

The Ferrari driver continued to build up more an advantage through the slow-speed second sector, braking later for each of the Mirabeau and Grand Hotel Hairpin corners. When you look at his hairpin delta, it briefly expands from around 0.15s up on Norris to almost 0.5s owing to his faster speed through the corner, but Norris reclaims most of this back with an earlier exit push. Most, but not all – Leclerc isn’t much later on the throttle on the exit, meaning that he gains about an extra tenth by simply pushing the entry of the hairpin a little bit more.

But the Ferrari has been quite good at doing this, while the McLaren is known to prefer dealing with corner exits rather than entries. Leclerc looks good through Portier too, although Norris gains back about a tenth on the exit. By the time the two reach the tunnel, Leclerc is 0.2s ahead.

Norris is a little stronger under acceleration and pulls the delta down to 0.15s, but Leclerc has a bit more top end and his later braking at the chicane resets that swing. But this is the turning point; Leclerc is a lot more tentative on the throttle out of the Nouvelle Chicane and cedes about a tenth to Norris.

To compensate, he’s faster into Tabac, but again he’s on the throttle later than Norris – the McLaren driver also uses less braking as he shifts down to fourth to help the power unit retard the rear axle slightly. Bit by bit, Leclerc’s earlier advantage is starting to fade in the final portion of the lap, although only by the merest of traces.

Yet, it adds up. Leclerc and Norris take different approaches into Rascasse; this time, Norris brakes a smidgen later than Leclerc, as their throttle traces are pretty much like-for-like.

Curiously, Leclerc goes up an extra gear and up to fifth on the way in – presumably to push the entrance with a bit more speed. He’s about 12kph up on Norris on the entry to the corner, but he’s got to go onto the brakes slightly sooner and his minimum speed through the corner is very slightly down by about 4-5kph.

Norris can be more decisive on the throttle on the exit, then brakes very slightly less for Antony Noghes before taking the run to the finish. By comparison, Leclerc appears to have been too leaden-footed into Rascasse and braked earlier in response – but that has let the engine speed drop a bit too much to get the drive out of the final two corners.

It’s difficult to compare gears used here, particularly as different powertrains have different power bands – and have their gear ratios mapped to suit – but Leclerc is revving a lot lower here when off-throttle.

Perhaps it was all about grip at this stage too, and that Norris’ slower middle sector actually helped him link the lap together with a stronger crescendo. Either way, getting the final part of the lap right proved to be decisive – as such, Norris has the high ground for tomorrow’s race start. Given Leclerc had it last year en route to his emotional home victory, he already knows just how important it is.

Lando Norris, McLaren

Photo by: Zak Mauger / Motorsport Images via Getty Images