McLaren’s Lando Norris will start the Monaco Grand Prix in pole position, setting a lap record to edge Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc and team-mate, Oscar Piastri, in a keenly contested qualifying session on Saturday.
Norris became the first drive to beat the 70-second mark in Monaco qualifying with a time of 69.954 seconds to beat Leclerc, who did a time of 70.063 seconds to settle for second spot on the front grid, while championship leader, Piastri, 0.06 seconds behind the Ferrari to claim third position.
Leclerc’s Ferrari team-mate, Lewis Hamilton, finished qualifying in fourth spot after recovering from a crash in final practice to post a time of 70.382 seconds, while world champion Max Verstappen was 0.3 seconds behind in fifth for Red Bull.
Norris will fancy his chances of winning this weekend as the Monaco GP is infamous for its narrow course which makes overtaking an extreme sport there. But for a while in Q3, it looked like it would be Leclerc that would take pole position, just as Piastri and Hamilton were not far off.
The McLaren driver went for 1m 10.464s on his first lap in Q3 to edge ahead of Piastri by just over half a tenth. But the final runs produced great drama as Piastri initially went quickest on a 1m 10.140s, before Norris edged ahead via a 1m 10.125s and Leclerc then sent the crowd wild with a 1m 10.063s.
Both McLarens suited up to have a go at Leclerc’s time and it was Norris who delivered with a brilliant push to setting the lap record and claiming pole position for the race on Sunday.