The day earlier than apply started in Monaco Charles Leclerc made it clear he didn’t fancy his possibilities of repeating his 2024 victory from pole place.
“Our automobile hasn’t been significantly robust in low-speed corners,” he stated. “And there’s solely low-speed corners right here in Monaco. So on paper, it doesn’t appear to be essentially the most promising monitor for us.”
However he added a caveat: “Monaco is so distinctive and so completely different from something we race on over the season that we will have a great shock as soon as we put the automobile down tomorrow – which I hope will occur.”
Having topped the primary two apply classes on Friday, it seems to be like that has certainly occurred for Leclerc. Might Ferrari break the McLaren-Purple Bull duopoly of poles and wins this yr at Leclerc’s dwelling monitor?
Groups’ 2024 efficiency in context
Final yr Monaco was the primary monitor the place Ferrari took pole place (certainly, it was the primary monitor the place anybody aside from Max Verstappen took pole place). In relative phrases, this was certainly one of Purple Bull’s weaker venues, although Haas, Aston Martin and most notably Sauber under-performed in comparison with their common tempo throughout the season.
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Groups’ progress vs 2024
Round half of the Monaco circuit has been resurfaced this yr, which has made it smoother than earlier than in locations. As was the case final weekend at Imola, Pirelli has introduced tyres which can be one stage softer.
These elements would possibly ordinarily be anticipated to result in sooner lap instances. However Monaco tends to be very ‘inexperienced’ early in a weekend and the grip ranges enhance quickly, which seemingly explains why just one staff has already lapped sooner than they managed final yr. That is Sauber, who had been over a second off their rivals’ tempo 12 months in the past.
Groups’ 2024 and 2025 instances
Ferrari’s tempo benefit over McLaren on the delicate tyres in second apply was slender: simply three hundredths of a second. However most encouragingly for the staff they had been faster than all their rivals throughout all three compounds: Leclerc on the delicate (1’11.355) and laborious (1’12.103), Lewis Hamilton on the medium (1’12.025).
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First and second apply instances
All through the season to this point Purple Bull have tended to lap additional off the tempo on Friday, then shut the hole on Saturday. The sample to this point this weekend seems to be strikingly much like Imola: Verstappen was properly off the front-running tempo in second apply, however the virtually non-existent hole between the 2 Purple Bulls doesn’t evaluate in any respect to what we’ve seen in qualifying, the place Yuki Tsunoda has barely been any nearer to him than Liam Lawson was.
The image is muddied additional by the excessive affect visitors and purple flags had on drivers’ alternatives to set flying lap instances on Friday. However even factoring all that in, Ferrari look extra aggressive in Monaco than they’ve all yr.
Leclerc has taken pole place for 3 of the final 4 races in Monaco (he was unable to start out there in 2021 after struggling a technical downside throughout his reconnaissance laps). Remarkably, only a week after Ferrari’s double Q2 exit of their dwelling race at Imola, he may need a shot at pole at his dwelling race in any case.
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2025 Monaco Grand Prix
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