Tag: Charles Leclerc

Monte Carlo, 26 May 2024: Charles Leclerc took an emotional Monaco Grand Prix win to become the first Monegasque driver to win his home race in the history of the Formula 1 championship. The Ferrari driver put in a controlled performance on the streets of his home town to finish ahead of McLaren’s Oscar Piastri and the second Ferrari of Carlos Sainz at the end of a race largely defined by an explosive crash on the opening lap that removed Red Bull’s Sergio Pérez and the Haas cars of Nico Hülkenberg from the race. Elsewhere, championship leader Max Verstappen finished in sixth place. 

“No words can explain that,” Leclerc said after the race. “It’s such a difficult race, I think the fact that twice I’ve been starting on pole and I couldn’t make it makes it a lot better.

“It was a difficult race emotionally, because already 15 laps from the end you’re hoping nothing happens. I was thinking a lot more to my dad than a lot more when I was driving. At first, we had quite a lot of margin but there was 78 laps to do. There was a big portion of the race where I had to manage the gap with George, but then I could push a lot more.”

When the lights went out at the start, pole-sitter Leclerc got away well to lead the field into Sainte-Devote. Behind him, McLaren’s Oscar Piastri was put under pressure by Carlos Sainz and as the pair went into Turn 1, Piastri clipped Sainz’s left-front tyre. Nursing a puncture, Sainz was forced to take the escape road as they went into Casino Square. 

Further back, chaos was unfolding. Starting from 16^th on the grid, Pérez started slowly and was swamped by both Haas drivers, who had made good starts after being relegated to the back row following disqualification from qualifying due to rear wing infringements.

On the run up the hill, Pérez moved to the middle of the track to defend his position. Behind him, to his left, Nico Hülkenberg back away from any challenge but on the right, Kevin Magnussen tried to push past. He clipped Pérez’s right rear wheel and the Mexican was pitched into a violent collision with the barriers and then both Haas cars. 

Thanks to the strength of the survival cell and the wheel tethers, the Red Bull driver was able to quickly climb out of the wrecked tub but with debris scattered over a long stretch of the track, and with another incident occurring at Portier as the Alpines of Pierre Gasly and Esteban Ocon clashed, the race was immediately red flagged. Ocon was later handed a 10-second time penalty for colliding with his team-mate, a sanction that will be converted to a five-place grid drop next time out in Montreal. 

After an almost 45-minute delay the race resumed with a standing start and in the original order, with Sainz lucky to have another opportunity to race. The red flags also provided an opportunity to switch tyres, and targeting a long run to the finish, the front four moved to Hard tyres. Behind them, Hard tyre-starters George Russell and Max Verstappen were forced to switch to Mediums for the new start. 

When the lights went out, the pack all got away cleanly and Leclerc took the lead ahead of the front runners who lined up in starting order. 

The Monegasque driver quickly settled into a rhythm ahead of Piastri, Sainz and Norris. Further back, though, Russell was heavily managing his Medium tyres and he drifted to six seconds behind fourth-placed Norris. 

The Mercedes driver’s slow pace meant that for McLaren the tantalising prospect of a gap large enough to pit and drop into began to come into view. It meat that Leclerc began to managed his pace, backing the field up to keep them in touch with Russell. 

The race then became a cat-and-mouse contest as The Ferraris backed the McLarens toward Russell, while the Mercedes driver tried to preserve his tyres and keep Verstappen at bay. 

At the end of lap 51, Mercedes’ Lewis Hamilton, who had a healthy gap back to RB’s Yuki Tsunoda, pitted from seventh and rejoined in the same position. That freed Red Bull to pit Verstappen and after a 2.1s stop for Hard tyres he again took up sixth place ahead Hamilton. With fresh tyres onboard Verstappen began to rattle off fastest laps and he closed on Russell quickly enough to deny the Mercedes driver a pit stop in response. Russell was forced to respond to the Dutchman’s pace and that in turn closed the window for McLaren to take on new tyres and potentially pressure the Ferraris at the finish. 

Leclerc settled into management mode and after 78 laps the Ferrari driver took the chequered flag to become the first Monegasque driver in the championship era to win his home grand prix seven seconds clear of Piastri with Sainz taking the final podium position just behind the Australian. 

Norris took fourth ahead of Russell, Verstappen and Hamilton, while Tsunoda took a solid eighth place. Behind them, Alex Albon took Williams’ first points of the season with ninth place and Gasly recovered after his early collision to finish tenth and take the final point on offer. 
 

2024 FIA Formula 1 Monaco Grand Prix – Race 
1 Charles Leclerc Ferrari 78 2:23’15.554 
2 Oscar Piastri McLaren/Mercedes 78 2:23’22.706 7.152
3 Carlos Sainz Ferrari 78 2:23’23.139 7.585
4 Lando Norris McLaren/Mercedes 78 2:23’24.204 8.650
5 George Russell Mercedes 78 2:23’28.863 13.309
6 Max Verstappen Red Bull/Honda RBPT 78 2:23’29.407 13.853
7 Lewis Hamilton Mercedes 78 2:23’30.462 14.908
8 Yuki Tsunoda RB/Honda RBPT 77 2:23’55.041 1 lap /39.487
9 Alexander Albon Williams/Mercedes 77 2:24’09.606 1 lap /54.052
10 Pierre Gasly Alpine/Renault 77 2:24’15.795 1 lap /1’00.241
11 Fernando Alonso Aston Martin/Mercedes 76 2:23’19.408 2 laps /3.854
12 Daniel Ricciardo RB/Honda RBPT 76 2:23’19.818 2 laps /4.264
13 Valtteri Bottas Sauber/Ferrari 76 2:23’20.042 2 laps /4.488
14 Lance Stroll Aston Martin/Mercedes 76 2:23’21.521 2 laps /5.967
15 Logan Sargeant Williams/Mercedes 76 2:23’24.580 2 laps /9.026
16 Zhou Guanyu Sauber/Ferrari 76 2:24’10.814 2 laps /55.260
     Esteban Ocon Alpine/Renault 0 – Collision amage
     Sergio Pérez Red Bull/Honda RBPT 0 – Collision 
     Nico Hülkenberg Haas/Ferrari 0 – Collision
     Kevin Magnussen Haas/Ferrari 0 – Collision

Monte Carlo, 25 May 2024: Charles Leclerc took pole position for the Monaco Grand Prix for the third time in his career, beating Oscar Piastri by 1500^ths of a second as championship leader Max Verstappen’s hopes of back-to-back poles in the principality were ended by a brush with the wall at the end of Q3. 

Local hero Leclerc went into qualifying having been fastest in FP2 and FP3 and though Ferrari driver said that he had not felt as confident in the opening session of qualifying the Monegasque delivered in Q3, taking provisional pole with his first run and then improving to 1:10.270 to take pole 0.154s ahead of Piastri. 

“The feeling after a qualifying lap is always very special here and I’m really happy about the lap,” said Leclrc afterwards. “I know more often than not in the past, qualifying is not everything. As much as it helps a lot for Sunday’s race, we need to put everything together coming Sunday. And in the past years, we didn’t manage to do so. But we are a stronger team. We are in a stronger position. And I’m sure we can achieve great things tomorrow. And obviously, the win is the target.”

Piastri impressed with his second front row qualifying spot in succession, while Sainz improved throughout to take a third place the Spaniard felt was out of reach earlier in the weekend.

“It was an improvement for me. I’ve been struggling all weekend with confidence and feeling with the car. So overall, to step it up and be P3 was a step forward. Obviously not entirely happy because I wish I could have been fighting for pole position. But the truth is that Charles has been doing an outstanding job. The car has been amazing all this weekend and he managed to extract the most out of it.”

After the first runs of Q3 Verstappen held third place, just over a tenths of a second off Leclerc’s provisional pole time but on his final lap of the session he clattered the barrier on exit at Sainte Devote and immediately aborted his lap. He qualified sixth. 

Lando Norris took fourth place for McLaren ahead of Mercedes’ George Russell, while Russell’s team-mate Lewis Hamilton finished seventh ahead of RB’s impressive Yuki Tsunoda and Williams’ Alex Albon. The top 10 shootout order was completed by Alpine’s Pierre Gasly.

Gasly’s final flying lap of Q2 bounced Alpine team-mate Esteban Ocon out of the final session, with the Ocon exiting the middle session ahead of Haas’ Nico Hülkenberg, RB’s Daniel Ricciardo, Aston Martin’s Lance Stroll, and the second Haas’ of Kevin Magnussen.

Fernando Alonso and Sergio Perez were the biggest casualties of the opening segment. Alonso dropped out in P16 ahead of Williams’ Logan Sargeant. Pérez looked ill at ease throughout and after failing to put together a strong lap at any stage in the session he exited in P18 ahead of Sauber pair Valtteri Bottas and Zhou Guanyu.

2024 FIA Formula 1 Monaco Grand Prix – Qualifying
1 Charles Leclerc Ferrari 1:10.270 
2 Oscar Piastri McLaren/Mercedes 1:10.424 0.154
3 Carlos Sainz Ferrari 1:10.518 0.248
4 Lando Norris McLaren/Mercedes 1:10.542 0.272
5 George Russell Mercedes 1:10.543 0.273
6 Max Verstappen Red Bull/Honda RBPT 1:10.567 0.297
7 Lewis Hamilton Mercedes 1:10.621 0.351
8 Yuki Tsunoda RB/Honda RBPT 1:10.858 0.588
9 Alexander Albon Williams/Mercedes 1:10.948 0.678
10 Pierre Gasly Alpine/Renault 1:11.311 1.041
11 Esteban Ocon Alpine/Renault 1:11.285 1.015
12 Nico Hülkenberg Haas/Ferrari 1:11.440 1.170
13 Daniel Ricciardo RB/Honda RBPT 1:11.482 1.212
14 Lance Stroll Aston Martin/Mercedes 1:11.563 1.293
15 Kevin Magnussen Haas/Ferrari 1:11.725 1.455
16 Fernando Alonso Aston Martin/Mercedes 1:12.019 1.749
17 Logan Sargeant Williams/Mercedes 1:12.020 1.750
18 Sergio Pérez Red Bull/Honda RBPT 1:12.060 1.790
19 Valtteri Bottas Sauber/Ferrari 1:12.512 2.242
20 Zhou Guanyu Sauber/Ferrari 1:13.028 2.758

Home favourite Charles Leclerc took top spot in the second practice session for the 2024 FIA Formula 1 Monaco Grand Prix, with the Ferrari driver beating Mercedes’ Lewis Hamilton by almost two tenths of a second as Aston Martin’s Fernando Alonso finished almost three tenths of a second further back in third. 

Leclerc was to the fore from the first part of the second hour of practice. The Monegasque driver posted a lap of 1:12.372 on Medium tyres to bypass an early Hard tyre time of 1:13.265 set by Red Bull Racing’s Max Verstappen. 

Leclerc then began to chip away at his own benchmark, first lowering the bar to 1m12.260s and then posting a time of 1:12.125 on the same set of medium tyres. He eventually worked his C4 best down to 1:11.573, but as the half way mark in the session neared the field began to move to C5 Soft tyres for qualifying simulations. 

Verstappen got close to the Ferrari driver’s P1 time but Leclerc, with the red-banded tyres on board, further stretched his advantage, pumping a lap of 1:11.278 to consolidate his hold on top spot. 

Pushing again to edge closer to the Ferrari man, Verstappen clipped the wall in Portier with the rear of his Red Bull and was forced to abort his lap. 

The missed attempt left Verstappen’s P2 time vulnerable and first Alonso moved past it, with the Spanish veteran posting a time of 1:11.753 to beat the Red Bull driver by six hundredths of a second. Hamilton, who had gone quickest in the first session, then shuffled Alonso back as he claimed the runner-up spoty with a time of 1:11.466. 

It meant that Verstappen was left with P4 and the Dutch driver was again unhappy with the behaviour of his RB20, at one point saying that he was “jumping around like a kangaroo” and that the balance was giving him a headache.

McLaren’s Lando Norris finished fifth, ahead of Carlos Sainz, who finished almost seven tenths adrift of Ferrari team-mate Leclerc. Lance Stroll was seventh in the second Aston Martin, a little under four hundredths of a second ahead of Sergio Pérez in the other Red Bull. Alex Albon was ninth for Williams wh9ile George Russell rounded out the top ten.

2024 FIA Formula 1 Monaco Grand Prix – Free Practice 2
1 Charles Leclerc Ferrari 1:11.278 37 168.540
2 Lewis Hamilton Mercedes 1:11.466 0.188 32 168.096
3 Fernando Alonso Aston Martin/Mercedes 1:11.753 0.475 37 167.424
4 Max Verstappen Red Bull/Honda RBPT 1:11.813 0.535 37 167.284
5 Lando Norris McLaren/Mercedes 1:11.953 0.675 35 166.958
6 Carlos Sainz Ferrari 1:11.962 0.684 36 166.938
7 Lance Stroll Aston Martin/Mercedes 1:12.062 0.784 22 166.706
8 Sergio Pérez Red Bull/Honda RBPT 1:12.099 0.821 31 166.620
9 Alexander Albon Williams/Mercedes 1:12.257 0.979 38 166.256
10 George Russell Mercedes 1:12.260 0.982 30 166.249
11 Yuki Tsunoda RB/Honda RBPT 1:12.349 1.071 36 166.045
12 Oscar Piastri McLaren/Mercedes 1:12.366 1.088 35 166.006
13 Kevin Magnussen Haas/Ferrari 1:12.473 1.195 31 165.761
14 Esteban Ocon Alpine/Renault 1:12.554 1.276 34 165.575
15 Nico Hülkenberg Haas/Ferrari 1:12.569 1.291 34 165.541
16 Daniel Ricciardo RB/Honda RBPT 1:12.577 1.299 37 165.523
17 Pierre Gasly Alpine/Renault 1:12.750 1.472 35 165.129
18 Logan Sargeant Williams/Mercedes 1:12.790 1.512 36 165.039
19 Valtteri Bottas Sauber/Ferrari 1:13.057 1.779 31 164.435
20 Zhou Guanyu Sauber/Ferrari 1:13.773 2.495 32 162.840