Lando Norris banishes qualifying blues to claim superb Monaco GP pole

Lando Norris banished his qualifying blues to claim pole position for the Monaco Grand Prix.

The British driver set a new record around the streets of Monte Carlo to beat local hero Charles Leclerc to pole by 0.109 seconds.

Norris, who has bemoaned his qualifying slip-ups throughout the season, put it together at the death to clinch his first pole since the season-opener in Melbourne.

Oscar Piastri, who leads McLaren team-mate Norris by 13 points at the top of the championship standings, will start Sunday’s race from third. Ferrari’s Lewis Hamilton qualified in fourth but was hit with a post-session three-place grid drop for impeding Max Verstappen.

As a result, Verstappen, who clinched his second win of the season at Imola last weekend to close to within 22 points of Piastri, will start in fourth despite qualifying in fifth.

Leclerc, who sparked jubilation in the principality 12 months ago when he ended years of near misses to clinch his first home victory, topped all three practice sessions and looked well set to clinch a fourth Monaco pole in five years.

The Monegasque improved on his final run in qualifying but was undone by Norris’ blistering final lap.

“It has been a long time coming, I feel good,” Norris said. “I don’t think you realise how good this feels after a few qualifying struggles over last few months.

“This is probably the hardest place to do it. I am very pleased.”

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Monaco is widely considered to be the most crucial qualifying session of the year, due it being nigh-on impossible to overtake around the narrow streets of the principality.

The FIA have introduced a mandatory two pit-stop rule for this season in a bid to create more strategy options for the race.

Hamilton crashed in the closing stages of final practice, losing control of his Ferrari at Massenet and spinning into the barriers.

Ferrari were forced into extensive work on Hamilton’s car, including changing the nose, front wing and gearbox.

The seven-time world champion had to pull together a fast lap to make it out of Q1 but was then placed under investigation for impeding Verstappen.

Ferrari appeared to inform their driver that the Dutchman was on a slow lap, with Hamilton saying: “You said he was slowing down, f**k sake man!”

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Hamilton was just over four-tenths off Norris’ pole time, but his best qualifying for Ferrari was scuppered by the penalty for impeding.

Mercedes endured a miserable qualifying, with George Russell – fourth in the drivers’ standings – and Kimi Antonelli lining up 14th and 15th.

Antonelli crashed out at the end of Q1 in his first F1 Monaco qualifying. The 18-year-old blew his left front tyre when hitting the barriers on the entry to the Nouvelle Chicane.

Russell was on the radio at the start of Q2 to report that he had lost power, with his car coming to halt in the middle of the tunnel – bringing out an inevitable red flag.

The marshals pushed his stricken machinery out of the tunnel and into an escape road as Russell guided the car and banged his steering wheel in frustration.