As always, the fight for pole position in Monaco was nothing short of spectacular – we had three drivers separated by less than 0.2 seconds, and the smallest of details ended up making the difference.

Lando Norris managed to piece together the fastest lap, which also marked a new lap record on the Monte Carlo circuit – an absolutely brilliant performance that he desperately needed. What were the details that decided pole in Monaco, and could we have expected more from certain drivers? Telemetry data has the answers.

McLaren vs Ferrari for P1

From the free practice sessions, it was already clear that these two teams would be fighting for the best possible grid position – something particularly valuable around the streets of Monaco.

Mercedes had been struggling with pace since the start of the weekend – clearly, this wasn’t their track. Neither of their drivers made it into the top 10, Kimi Antonelli crashing out of Q1 while George Russell ground to a halt in Q2.

Red Bull and Verstappen looked like they might challenge for pole, but in the end, Max only managed P5, noticeably behind the McLaren and Ferrari drivers, even if Verstappen did gain a position thanks to a three-place grid drop for Lewis Hamilton, who impeded the Dutchman in Q1.

Ferrari on the other hand, after struggling all season with car setup, finally managed to unlock a good one-lap pace. Leclerc topped all three practice sessions, showing tremendous motivation at his home Grand Prix.

In the end, the gap was just 0.109 seconds – and it tipped in favour of the Brit.

Lando started the lap well, carrying more speed through Sainte Devote than the Ferrari driver, gaining a hundredth of a second right there. From that point on, Leclerc was the quicker of the two and managed to go faster in the second sector.

The Ferrari driver held better car stability through Monaco’s slow corners. He had a cleaner line through the hairpin (even though Norris carried more apex speed) and was more precise through T7. In this section of the track, Leclerc had less understeer – which, to some degree, all drivers experience here.

That’s especially interesting considering that McLaren had looked stronger in slow-speed corners during free practice.

Things shifted again in the final sector. While Leclerc had been fastest in Sector 3 on Friday, he lost out in qualifying and this was the section where Norris stole pole.

Telemetry shows Norris stayed on the throttle longer through Turns 15 and 16, taking more risk over the kerbs. That paid off, as it gave him just enough of a lead to hold onto in the final corners and secure the top spot.

Despite the small mistake in Sector 3, Leclerc extracted everything from the SF-25. This is confirmed by the ideal lap data, where the ideal lap (a combination of all best sector times) matched his final lap time perfectly – a sign he had no more time left to gain.

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Piastri behind Norris for the first time in a while

The driver who failed to piece together his ideal lap was Oscar Piastri, who, after several races ahead of his teammate in qualifying, ended up behind Norris this time.

Just like against Leclerc, Piastri was stronger in the slower corners, but Norris was faster through almost every other section. The biggest time gaps came in the chicane after the tunnel and in Tabac.

Oscar had the fastest first sector of all – but it simply wasn’t enough.

Still, this win over his teammate could be an important mental boost for Norris, considering that Piastri currently leads the Drivers’ Championship despite many having placed higher expectations on Lando at the start of the season. It’s clear that Norris is under a lot of pressure, and at times, he’s too hard on himself – which doesn’t always translate into better performance on track.

Maybe this could be a key turning point in the 2025 title fight.

Could Hamilton have done more?

The seven-time World Champion didn’t have an ideal end to FP3. A late-session crash brought out red flags, which certainly didn’t help – and it’s not easy to regain confidence after that.

Still, like his teammate, Lewis did the best he could – his fastest lap was also his ideal lap. What cost him a better position was a weak second sector.

After a great start through T1, he ran into issues in T3 and T4 – exactly where he made a mistake during FP3. The delta shows that from that point onward, the gap between him and Leclerc kept growing. In the second sector alone, Charles was over 0.2s faster – a massive margin for Monaco.

What will definitely push the seven-time World Champion further away from another attempt at victory in Monaco is the three-place grid penalty following his incident with Verstappen in qualifying. This means that Lewis will start from P7, while Verstappen, Hadjar, and Alonso in the Aston Martin will each move up one position on the grid.

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