New Delhi: Lando Norris returns to pole position in the Monaco Grand Prix for the first time since the Australian Grand Prix at the start of the season. He beats the local lad, Charles Leclerc, in the last lap by just a little margin. His lap was just 0.109 seconds faster than the Ferrari driver and 0.177 seconds ahead of his teammate and championship leader, Oscar Piastri, who will start in third place.
The McLaren driver set a new track record as his lap marked at 1.09.954 seconds, giving him his 11th career pole. The top four spots are taken by the two McLarens and Ferrari, with Lewis Hamilton coming fourth. Max Verstappen, who has been the sole challenger to the two McLarens for the championship, could manage to come fifth. Hamilton, though, is under investigation for potentially impeding the defending champion Verstappen.
Here’s how they’ll line up for Sunday’s Grand Prix 👀#F1 #MonacoGP pic.twitter.com/dWTyIVjUyE
— Formula 1 (@F1) May 24, 2025
Lando Norris’ unbelievable run in Q3
The story had changed by miles from practice, where it was Leclerc who was the fastest in all three sessions and was even the quickest in Q1. Norris remained the fastest driver in Q2, before taking a provisional pole position in Q3 with Piastri slower by just 0.067 seconds in the first Q3 lap. In the second Q3 lap, it was a battle between the two McLaren drivers with Piatri going past Norris by just a little.
However, there was still time for a third flying lap from the Papaya team, and Norris came to his full strength here and ensured Leclerc didn’t sit in the pole at the close of the session. Even before the qualifying began, two drivers for separate incidents in the practice have grid penalties, with Lance Stroll getting a one-place penalty while Ollie Bearman has 10 10-place penalties.
A sad outing for Mercedes
While it was business as usual for the top three teams, Mercedes would like to forget the qualifying session as none of their cars made it past Q2. Kimi Antonelli crashed at the end of the Q1 session, hitting the barriers, and even though he had qualified for the Q2, he couldn’t take part in it. George Russell started the Q2 session well, but couldn’t even finish the lap and stalled in the tunnel due to a battery issue.
It was an amazing outing for Fernando Alonso, after finishing in seventh place, having finished the previous outing in Imola at fifth place. His teammate Lance Stroll will start 19th having failed to make it past Q1.
Lando Norris takes the pole position at the Monaco Grand Prix, going just past the local boy Charles Leclerc and in the process, setting up a new lap record during Q3. Sports Sports News: Latest Cricket News, Cricket Live Score, Sports Breaking News from Sports Today
