The Monaco Grand Prix has only ever been won by a driver from the principality once before in its long, storied history – and never as a round of the world championship.
But Sunday could be the day that changes. For the third time, Charles Leclerc will start his home grand prix from pole position – and this is his best chance yet to finally convert that to victory.
“The qualifying in Monaco is a big part of the job,” the pole winner said. “It is true that in the past we didn’t have the success that we wanted, but I don’t want to think about that any more. And I’m pretty sure that it will be a good one this weekend.”
With a dry race virtually guaranteed, Leclerc is the overwhelming favourite to finally achieve his childhood dream on Sunday, and with it emulate Louis Chiron by winning his home race in Monaco. However, Oscar Piastri will be starting alongside him on the front row in a very fast McLaren and is no less hungry to take his first career victory and spoil the party.
Weather
Although recent race days have arrived with very minor risks of rain, there are no such concerns on Sunday in Monaco. The glorious sunny skies that teams were treated to for Saturday’s qualifying day are expected to be repeated for the race, with very little in the way of cloud cover.
Not only with the Monaco Grand Prix be Instagram-worthy thanks to its conditions, the warm track temperatures mean that drivers will have to be careful about not putting too much energy into their tyres and overheating them when the entire field will almost certainly be running a single-stop strategy and needing to keep their tyres in a good condition.
As there is no risk of rain affecting proceedings during the race, this should be the first fully dry Monaco race since 2021, where Verstappen led every lap of the race from pole to win his first grand prix in the Principality.
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Start
Monaco has always been considered the most important pole position to have of the entire season for a simple reason. Whoever tends to lead into Sainte Devote most often than not wins the race. Over the last 10 Monaco Grands Prix held going back to 2013, the driver leading up the hill to Massenet on the opening lap has been the driver on the top step of the podium later that afternoon on six occasions.
At just over 200 metres, this is the shortest sprint to the…
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