F1 LIVE | The Monaco Grand Prix: Leclerc on pole position, Verstappen P4
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- GPblog.com
One of the most important races of the year is about to begin. At 14:00 UK time the drivers will start the Monaco Grand Prix. With Charles Leclerc and Carlos Sainz starting from the first row of the grid, Ferrari have the chance to take a lot of points from Red Bull Racing. Follow the race below via GPblog's liveblog!
LIVE: The Monaco Grand Prix
Currently Max Verstappen is still on top of the drivers' championship and Red Bull are leading the constructors' championship. A lot has to happen if Christian Horner's team wants to be back on top in both championships after this weekend. One possible factor in Monaco is rain, which seems to be on the way for the race.
Rain on the way?
This entire weekend has been dry in the Principality, so with possible rain, no team has data to know how the cars will react to the rain in Monaco. In any case, the mechanics in the pit lane will be keeping an eye on the sky for possible rain.
Should it remain dry, Ferrari has the best cards to bring in a 1-2. Overtaking is traditionally difficult on the tight track and with 78 laps to complete there will be no big risks taken at the start of the race.
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Overtaking around Monaco
Qualifying for the Monaco Grand Prix is notoriously known as the most important Saturday session of the entire year. Though that point isn't exactly true when looking at the data. It wasn't the case last time out in Spain but pole position in Barcelona has won an incredible 72% of races. Monaco is still high for Formula 1, but way down in comparison at 45%. Since 2015, pole position has won twice at Monaco. Prior to that, there was a six-race run of the pole-sitter also taking the victory on Sunday.
However, in the last four Monaco Grands Prix, there have been less than 10 on track overtakes combined. So what happened to the pole-sitter? In 2021, Leclerc secured pole position but crashed on the way back to the garage. Ferrari thought they had solved the problem, but on the way to the grid Leclerc broke down. There was no Grand Prix in 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic. In 2017, 2016 and 2015 the race-winning move occurred in the pitlane.
The pressure on the pit crew in Monaco is immense. The undercut is extremely powerful, and any mistake in the pitlane is, therefore, more costly. Mercedes estimate the drive-through time at 19.4 seconds. Against fresh tyres, that's difficult to combat. With the safety car probability at 60%, teams also have to be quick on the button to react and bring their driver in for an advantageous pitstop.