Leclerc Takes Pole Position for Monaco GP, Ends Verstappen's Bid for F1 Record

25 May 2024, Monaco, Monte-Carlo: Monaco's Formula 1 driver Charles Leclerc of Ferrari competes during the Practice 3 ahead of the Formula One Monaco Grand Prix. Photo: Beata Zawrzel/ZUMA Press Wire/dpa
25 May 2024, Monaco, Monte-Carlo: Monaco's Formula 1 driver Charles Leclerc of Ferrari competes during the Practice 3 ahead of the Formula One Monaco Grand Prix. Photo: Beata Zawrzel/ZUMA Press Wire/dpa
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Leclerc Takes Pole Position for Monaco GP, Ends Verstappen's Bid for F1 Record

25 May 2024, Monaco, Monte-Carlo: Monaco's Formula 1 driver Charles Leclerc of Ferrari competes during the Practice 3 ahead of the Formula One Monaco Grand Prix. Photo: Beata Zawrzel/ZUMA Press Wire/dpa
25 May 2024, Monaco, Monte-Carlo: Monaco's Formula 1 driver Charles Leclerc of Ferrari competes during the Practice 3 ahead of the Formula One Monaco Grand Prix. Photo: Beata Zawrzel/ZUMA Press Wire/dpa

Charles Leclerc took pole position for Ferrari at the Monaco Grand Prix and ended Formula 1 champion Max Verstappen's bid for a record-extending ninth straight pole on Saturday, The Associated Press reported.
Verstappen, who shares the F1 record with the late Ayrton Senna, starts Sunday's race from sixth place for Red Bull on arguably the most difficult track for overtaking in the series.
Leclerc secured his third pole in four years at Monaco, where he grew up overlooking the start-finish line, and took his career total to 24 poles.
He finished .154 seconds ahead of McLaren's Oscar Piastri and .248 clear of Ferrari teammate Carlos Sainz Jr. McLaren's Lando Norris qualified fourth ahead of Mercedes driver George Russell.
“Really, really happy about the lap,” Leclerc said. “I know more often than not that qualifying is not everything in the race.”
Leclerc took pole in 2021, but could not start due to a gearbox problem. He led from pole in 2022 until Ferrari made an incorrect call to change his tires.
Verstappen won the race from pole last year but will be hard pushed to win his sixth race of the season.
But Leclerc is well set to end his run of nearly two years without a win, dating to July 2022 at the Austrian GP.
“I just need a good launch (from the start),” said Leclerc, who has won five F1 races in his career.
Traffic forced a couple of drivers to swerve around other cars struggling for space on Monaco's tight and sinewy 3.3-kilometer (two-mile) street circuit.
Spanish veteran Fernando Alonso narrowly avoided a piece of debris just before heading into the tunnel section during Q1, the first part of qualifying.
Alonso failed to make it into Q2 and so did Red Bull's Sergio Perez, who muttered an expletive on race radio. He is out of contract at the end of the season and Red Bull has yet to confirm he will get a seat for 2025.
Norris only just squeezed into Q2, but then found his rhythm.



Lewis Hamilton Steps Out in Red at Unprecedented 10-Team F1 Launch 

Formula One F1 - F1 75 Live Season Launch - The O2, London, Britain - February 18, 2025 Ferrari's Lewis Hamilton with team principal Frederic Vasseur and Charles Leclerc during the launch. (Reuters)
Formula One F1 - F1 75 Live Season Launch - The O2, London, Britain - February 18, 2025 Ferrari's Lewis Hamilton with team principal Frederic Vasseur and Charles Leclerc during the launch. (Reuters)
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Lewis Hamilton Steps Out in Red at Unprecedented 10-Team F1 Launch 

Formula One F1 - F1 75 Live Season Launch - The O2, London, Britain - February 18, 2025 Ferrari's Lewis Hamilton with team principal Frederic Vasseur and Charles Leclerc during the launch. (Reuters)
Formula One F1 - F1 75 Live Season Launch - The O2, London, Britain - February 18, 2025 Ferrari's Lewis Hamilton with team principal Frederic Vasseur and Charles Leclerc during the launch. (Reuters)

Seven-times world champion Lewis Hamilton appeared in Ferrari red for the first time outside of Italy as Formula One put on an unprecedented and spectacular 10-team season launch in front of 15,000 fans on Tuesday.

The 40-year-old Briton, who has moved from Mercedes, got the loudest cheer of the night when he took the stage for an event that coincided with the birthday of his Italian team's late founder Enzo.

"I feel so full of life, so much energy, because everything's new and I'm just focused on what is up ahead," Hamilton told his home crowd at London's 02 Arena.

"I'm so proud to be part of the team. Something new and exciting for me."

The two-hour show, with British comedian and host Jack Whitehall gently ribbing the protagonists, featured lights, lasers and musical acts including former boy band Take That and US country singer Kane Brown.

Liberty Media-owned Formula One said early in the evening that its YouTube channel had smashed through the one-million viewers mark, breaking a previous live-event record of 289,000.

"This event is all about the fans and without the fans there is no sport," Red Bull team principal Christian Horner told reporters before the show started.

"I'm sure it's probably the last place that the drivers want to be, paraded out in front of a stadium full of fans, but Formula One is an entertainment, it's a show, and it's the 75th anniversary (of the championship).

"So a huge amount of effort has gone into tonight by Formula One and all 10 teams."

There was a time when the teams struggled to agree even on what day it was, but Formula One's surging popularity and revenues have concentrated minds.

The success of Netflix docu-series Drive to Survive, and the arrival in cinemas later this year of Brad Pitt's Hollywood drama F1, led to tickets for the event selling out in a matter of minutes.

The show, featuring all 20 drivers, was broadcast live around the world and streamed on social media.

"It feels like there's a big rock concert about and ready to happen," American Zak Brown, chief executive of champions McLaren, told reporters earlier.

"I've been a fan for a while of doing more fan events, whether that's a launch or making the testing that we do a little bit more focused on the fan."

The teams each had just seven minutes to present their liveries - the cars either old ones re-painted or engineless shells made just for show that will not go anywhere near a circuit.

Red Bull's at least had an engine in it, but Sauber had announced well in advance that theirs would be auctioned off after the event.

New Zealand's Liam Lawson and four-time world champion Max Verstappen took the stage for Red Bull, but neither spoke.

Lawson is set to compete in his first full season in Formula 1.

Ferrari, last year's runners-up, will be launching their 2025 car at Maranello on Wednesday while McLaren and Williams ran theirs at Silverstone last week in interim liveries.