Category: Motor Racing

Red Bull Racing’s Max Verstappen beat the McLaren pair of Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri to take pole position for the sprint race at the Red Bull Ring.

After the SQ3 drivers had waited for almost all the final qualifying segment to pass by before heading out on new soft tyres, the Mercedes duo led the pack out of the pits.

Lewis Hamilton posted a lap time of one minute, 05.270 seconds before he was immediately beaten by his teammate George Russell and then Piastri came through to shuffle them down.

Norris produced the fastest time in the middle sector to go ahead on a time with one minute, 04.779 seconds, but Verstappen’s leading pace in the first and final sector made the difference as he came through to top the session with a time of one minute, 04.686s seconds

Behind, Carlos Sainz slotted his Ferrari between the Mercedes drivers to take fifth position, with Sergio Perez, Esteban Ocon and Pierre Gasly ending up seventh, eighth and ninth and appearing to pay the price for being at the back of the traffic queue on the SQ3 out-lap.

Charles Leclerc ended up in tenth position without setting an SQ3 lap after he had pulled over from between the Alpines in the pitlane with an apparent technical issue.

The Ferrari driver fixed this and headed out, but did not cross the line in time to start a flying lap.

In SQ2, Kevin Magnussen produced the best first sector of this segment but lost time as his single run continued and he ended up in P11 – ahead of Aston Martin pair Lance Stroll and Fernando Alonso, plus Yuki Tsunoda and Logan Sargeant.

Stroll saved a massive moment at Turn 10 on his only attempt in SQ2, with those eliminated, plus the Alpine pair, having to complete an extra run on the mediums compared to the frontrunners getting out of SQ1.

In that, Hamilton had a nervy ride through after losing his first lap for going wide and dipping his right-side wheels in the gravel at Turn 6, then had a traffic-heavy second attempt before he progressed in P13 behind Alonso.

Logan Sargeant led Alex Albon from the off for the Williams and the former’s final improvement knocked Daniel Ricciardo out in P16 ahead of Nico Hulkenberg, Valtteri Bottas, Albon and Zhou Guanyu.

In the closing seconds of the opening session where the drivers are only allowed to run the medium tyres throughout, as those that made it also were in SQ2, Tsunoda spun off dramatically at the final two corners but was able to carry on without damage.

Austrian Grand Prix, sprint qualifying results:
1 Max Verstappen Red Bull 1:04.686
2 Lando Norris McLaren 1:04.779
3 Oscar Piastri McLaren 1:04.987
4 George Russell Mercedes 1:05.054
5 Carlos Sainz Ferrari 1:05.126
6 Lewis Hamilton Mercedes 1:05.270
7 Sergio Perez Red Bull 1:06.008
8 Esteban Ocon Alpine 1:06.101
9 Pierre Gasly Alpine 1:06.624
10 Charles Leclerc Ferrari No time
11 Nico Hulkenberg Haas 1:05.806
12 Lance Stroll Aston Martin 1:05.847
13 Fernando Alonso Aston Martin 1:05.878
14 Yuki Tsunoda RB 1:05.960
15 Logan Sargeant Williams No time
16 Daniel Ricciardo RB 1:06.581
17 Nico Hulkenberg Haas 1:06.583
18 Valtteri Bottas Sauber 1:06.725
19 Alexander Albon Williams 1:06.754
20 Zhou Guanyu Sauber 1:07.197

Max Verstappen achieved his seventh victory of the 2024 season at the Spanish Grand Prix. The current championship leader finished ahead of Lando Norris while Lewis Hamilton is back on the podium.

The Red Bull driver stayed clear of a late-race charge from Norris to take victory at the Circuit de Catalunya-Barcelona, having got ahead of the polesitter into Turn 1.

Verstappen held the inside line for the opening corner to take position from Norris, although George Russell snatched the lead from both, but the Red Bull driver easily cleared the Mercedes on the third lap thanks to DRS as Russell proved unable to clear off into the distance.

Despite coming under threat in a tactical race, with Verstappen’s gap to Norris rising and falling as McLaren pitted later on, the defending champion resisted the pressure to extend his championship lead.

“I think what made the race was the beginning; when I took the lead and then had to drive quite a defensive race, especially on deg,” Verstappen said. “I think we did everything well, we did quite an aggressive strategy which paid off at the end.

“I had to do a bit of rallying on the straight, got on the grass which lost me momentum. I got ahead of Lando at Turn 1 and wanted to get into the lead so i could look after my tyres a bit.

“It’s just managing the tyres, they get very hot around here with the high-speed corners. it was a management race throughout.”

With all focus on the start between Norris and Verstappen on the front row, it was Russell who claimed the best start from fourth on the grid. The Mercedes driver dived left to take the racing line into the corner while the cars ahead battle for the inside line.

This handed Russell the momentum to go around the outside of them both and into the lead.

Once Verstappen got by, McLaren stayed in the fight after creating a tyre off-set for Norris; the championship leader pitted at the end of lap 17 to trade his softs for mediums, but Norris decided to remain on track for another six laps to ensure his mediums were six laps younger.

The gap between the two sat at about ten seconds following the stops, but Norris began to extend out the gap – although the reducing margins faded as Norris had to clear the Ferrari of Carlos Sainz and the Mercedes duo.

Their delta reduced to five seconds before Verstappen pitted again at the end of lap 44, taking another set of softs to the end, and McLaren chose to pursue just a three-lap offset next time around to give Norris enough to push with to the end.

Although the gap between them went up, Norris spent the rest of the race closing Verstappen down – although time eventually ran out and the difference between them at the flag stood at 2.2 seconds.

Lewis Hamilton claimed his first podium position of the season after passing Russell with 15 laps to the flag, as the Mercedes duo are running different on strategy; Russell’s initial two stints were shorter and thus needed the hard tyre to go to the end, which George felt was not a particularly strong race tyre.

Hamilton’s stints were longer, and thus he could collect the soft tyre and benefit from a quicker pace at the end to overcome his teammate.

Russell finished fourth, despite under pressure from Charles Leclerc – who also took the soft tyre at the end in a bid to make progress. This put Leclerc over Sainz, who in turn finished clear of Oscar Piastri.

Sergio Perez finished in eighth with a three-stop strategy from P11 on the grid, while the Alpines completed the top ten in a vital boost to their constructors’ championship efforts – Pierre Gasly ninth and clear of teammate Esteban Ocon.

It was inevitable that Max Verstappen would win this race despite the qualifying highlight for Lando Norris taking his second career pole. A slow start for the McLaren driver was costly and yet the race pace plus strategy helped the triple champion to win in Spain.

Spanish Grand Prix, race results:
1 Max Verstappen Red Bull 1:28:20.227
2 Lando Norris McLaren +2.219s
3 Lewis Hamilton Mercedes +17.790s
4 George Russell Mercedes +22.320s
5 Charles Leclerc Ferrari +22.709s
6 Carlos Sainz Ferrari +31.028s
7 Oscar Piastri McLaren +33.760s
8 Sergio Perez Red Bull +59.524s
9 Pierre Gasly Alpine +62.025s
10 Esteban Ocon Alpine +71.889s
11 Nico Hulkenberg Haas +79.215s
12 Fernando Alonso Aston Martin +1 lap
13 Zhou Guanyu Sauber +1 lap
14 Lance Stroll Aston Martin +1 lap
15 Daniel Ricciardo RB +1 lap
16 Valtteri Bottas Sauber +1 lap
17 Kevin Magnussen Haas +1 lap
18 Alexander Albon Williams M +1 lap
19 Yuki Tsunoda RB +1 lap
20 Logan Sargeant Williams +2 laps

Lando Norris snatched pole position for the Spanish Grand Prix from championship leader Max Verstappen by a tiny margin of 0.02 seconds on his final Q3 run to take his second career pole.

Verstappen looked set for his eighth pole of the 2024 season after setting a time of one minute, 11.673 seconds on his first flying lap to make a statement and following that upped the pace with a time of one minute, 11.403 seconds on his last effort thanks to a slipstream from teammate Sergio Perez.

His first effort had already proved unbeatable for the respective Ferrari and Mercedes duos, as qualifying was very competitive, and yet Norris delivered at the final moment to beat Verstappen.

“It was pretty much a perfect lap. It was so close, still, but I’m super happy. One of my best pole positions, not that I’ve had many! But it was just about getting a perfect lap, and that’s what we did,” said Norris.

“We’ve been quick the last two months, since Miami we’ve been strong. We’ve probably missed out on pole just by not having the perfect lap, but we did it today.

“[Winning] is our target, but it’s going to be tough against Max, against Lewis. But we’re here to win now.”

The Silver Arrows locked out the second row, as Lewis Hamilton outqualified George Russell by just 0.002 seconds to claim third position, displacing the Ferraris.

Charles Leclerc was fifth-fastest by 0.005 seconds over Carlos Sainz, while Pierre Gasly took a surprise seventh on the grid in a weekend Alpine expected to struggle.

Perez took eighth, which becomes P11 with the application of a grid penalty collected in Montreal, as Esteban Ocon and Oscar Piastri completed the top ten.

The McLaren driver was stranded in P10 as he was unable to set a time in Q3, aborting his only lap after understeering out of Turn 13 and clipping the gravel on the exit.

Fernando Alonso could not break into Q3 at his home race, despite improving on his final lap. The double world champion was initially P14 before he crossed the line, but this only lifted him up to P11.

Alonso thus starts Sunday’s race against Valtteri Bottas, who was P12 for Sauber.

Nico Hulkenberg also fell into the bottom five late on in Q2, joining Lance Stroll and Zhou Guanyu as the remainder of the drivers who failed to progress into the top ten shootout.

Kevin Magnussen was pushed into the drop zone at the end of Q1 by teammate Hulkenberg, as the Haas driver improved late on into the session to break into the next phase of qualifying.

Magnussen had managed to get free of the bottom five on his own final flying lap, but a series of late improvements ensured that he started to tumble down the order once more. In the end it became P16.

The RBs of Yuki Tsunoda and Daniel Ricciardo were both knocked out despite a series of new upgrades to the car, becoming victims of a tightly compressed field as they fell under a second shy of Hamilton’s Q1 benchmark.

Alex Albon and Logan Sargeant locked out the back row of the grid for Williams, as Albon attempted to run off-peak with his second Q1 effort and got up to P12, but dropped back as others improved.

So a very close contest in qualifying with Lando Norris coming out on top for McLaren. This is his second career pole following on from Russia in 2021. It will be interesting if Lando can go for his second victory on race day.

Spanish Grand Prix, qualifying results:
1 Lando Norris McLaren 1:11.383
2 Max Verstappen Red Bull 1:11.403
3 Lewis Hamilton Mercedes 1:11.701
4 George Russell Mercedes 1:11.703
5 Charles Leclerc Ferrari 1:11.731
6 Carlos Sainz Ferrari 1:11.736
7 Pierre Gasly Alpine 1:11.857
8 Esteban Ocon Alpine 1:12.125
9 Oscar Piastri McLaren 1:12.011
10 Fernando Alonso Aston Martin 1:12.128
11 Sergio Perez Red Bull 1:12.061*
12 Valtteri Bottas Sauber 1:12.227
13 Nico Hulkenberg Haas 1:12.310
14 Lance Stroll Aston Martin 1:12.372
15 Zhou Guanyu Sauber 1:12.738
16 Kevin Magnussen Haas 1:12.937
17 Yuki Tsunoda RB 1:12.985
18 Daniel Ricciardo RB 1:13.075
19 Alexander Albon Williams 1:13.153
20 Logan Sargeant Williams 1:13.509
*Three-place grid penalty for dropping debris around the track at Montreal

Championship leader Max Verstappen came through the wet/dry conditions to win the Canadian Grand Prix.

The Red Bull driver retained position over polesitter George Russell during their pitstops for intermediate tyres, following a safety car by Logan Sargeant, and then-leader Lando Norris was compelled to stop a lap later having passed the pit entry when the safety car was called.

“Yeah, it was a pretty crazy race and we had to be on top of our calls,” Verstappen said. “We remained calm, pitted at the right time, and the safety car worked well for us. After that we were managing the gaps.

“[McLaren and Mercedes fought us] in different stages as well, so it was a lot of fun out there.”

Norris filtered out in third and was forced to stick with the cars ahead, waiting for a drying line to form to reprise his pace from the opening stint that had allowed him to take the lead from Russell.

When the drying line emerged, the leading duo decided to pit together on lap 45, but Norris attempted to extend his time gap by staying out by going two laps longer.

This helped him ahead of Russell and, briefly, Verstappen – but the McLaren driver suffered a snap of oversteer when coming out of the pits to allow Verstappen to take his lead.

The triple champion had to endure a second safety car when Carlos Sainz slipped off track and put Alex Albon into the wall, but he overcame the restart perfectly and never came under threat from Norris thereafter.

Verstappen had not been able to pass Russell at the start, and initially fell beyond two seconds behind the Mercedes driver, but started to catch back up.

But Norris then started to lap much faster than the leading pair, and closed down Verstappen to start his challenge towards the lead as the circuit started to produce a drying line.

The McLaren driver was determined that Verstappen was closing in on DRS range of Russell, and thus took a lap out of cooling his tyres on the wet patches to put a move on the Red Bull along the back straight at the close of lap 20.

He put the same move on Russell at the end of the next lap, and the Mercedes driver subsequently went off at Turn 14 to allow Verstappen to trickle past.

Norris started to forge an impressive lead over the Red Bull driver at a rate of over two seconds per lap but, as he was approaching a 10-second lead, his progress was halted by a safety car as Logan Sargeant dropped his car into the wall on the exit of Turn 5.

The timing of the safety car, unlike Lando’s Miami Grand Prix win, was not in his favour; Verstappen could take a pitstop for fresh intermediates with a threat of further rain emerging, followed by Russell and Oscar Piastri, and Norris had to wait until the following lap to make a stop.

Norris lost out and cycled out in third, behind Verstappen and Russell, and remained locked behind them as the rain began to fall once again, despite staying in touch. Verstappen extended a lead beyond the three-second mark, as the trio waited for the rain to subside.

Once the period of precipitation had ended, it had become clear by the lap 42 that the intermediate-to-dry crossover was emerging as Pierre Gasly was lapping at the leaders’ pace on hard tyres.

Both Verstappen and Russell stopped at the end of lap 45, taking on the medium and hard respectively, but Norris was confident in his pace and was still setting personal bests, and thus took another two laps on the intermediate in a bid to undercut both.

It worked, for a time, and he emerged from the pits on mediums ahead of Verstappen for a handful of seconds – but with minimal grip coming out of the pitlane, his McLaren wagged its tail and allowed Verstappen to pick up the lead.

Russell won out in his late-race battle with Hamilton to secure the team’s first podium of the season, although Hamilton clinched the fastest lap at the end of the race.

The pair cleared Oscar Piastri to ensure they could battle for the final podium place, leaving the McLaren driver to a lonely final few laps as Fernando Alonso was over seven seconds behind in sixth.

Lance Stroll claimed seventh, while Daniel Ricciardo withstood big pressure from the Alpines of Pierre Gasly and Esteban Ocon to finish in eighth – his first finish in the points this season for RB.

So a wild race in Montreal and yet it was inevitable that Max Verstappen comes through to win. The wet/dry conditions made the racing entertaining and it is encouraging that Mercedes have good performance. More competition is good for the sport.

Canadian Grand Prix, race results:
1 Max Verstappen Red Bull 1:45:47.927
2 Lando Norris McLaren +3.879s
3 George Russell Mercedes +4.317s
4 Lewis Hamilton Mercedes +4.915s
5 Oscar Piastri McLaren +10.199s
6 Fernando Alonso Aston Martin +17.510s
7 Lance Stroll Aston Martin +23.625s
8 Daniel Ricciardo RB +28.672s
9 Pierre Gasly Alpine +30.021s
10 Esteban Ocon Alpine +30.313s
11 Nico Hulkenberg Haas +30.824s
12 Kevin Magnussen Haas +31.253s
13 Valtteri Bottas Sauber +40.487s
14 Yuki Tsunoda RB +52.694s
15 Zhou Guanyu Sauber 69 +1 lap
Carlos Sainz Ferrari DNF
Alexander Albon Williams DNF
Sergio Perez Red Bull DNF
Charles Leclerc Ferrari DNF
Logan Sargeant Williams DNF

George Russell achieved his second Formula 1 pole position in qualifying for the Canadian Grand Prix, setting an identical time to triple champion Max Verstappen.

The Mercedes driver set his best lap of Q3 in the opening runs, posting an one minute, 12.000 seconds to lay down a benchmark for the final runs at the end of the session. He was joined in the top two by his teammate Lewis Hamilton after those opening laps, but fresh tyres at the end of the segment looked set to change the form.

Verstappen used them to set a rapid opening sector, but could not match Russell’s second sector and crossed the finishing line to set exactly the same time as the Mercedes driver – another one minute, 12.000 seconds – but was second thanks to the order their laps were set in.

“It feels so good, so much hard work gone on back at the factory. We said in Monaco we hoped this was the start of the season,” Russell said. “It’s awesome when we come to Montreal. First bit done, but now we’ve got to fight for that win.”

“Let’s go for it. Since we brought some upgrades to Monaco we’ve really been in that fight so we’re going for it tomorrow.”

Lando Norris beat McLaren teammate Oscar Piastri to third place, having been just 0.021 seconds off Russell and Verstappen’s laps, while Daniel Ricciardo responded to criticism over his performances in 2024 by placing his RB in fifth position, ahead of Fernando Alonso.

Hamilton could not improve in his final lap and thus had to be content with seventh, and will start alongside RB’s Yuki Tsunoda. Lance Stroll and Alex Albon completed the top ten, as both impressed in qualifying form.

Charles Leclerc and Carlos Sainz were both surprise eliminations from Q2 as neither Ferrari driver could tap into the demands of the Montreal circuit – Sainz stating that he had no grip and Leclerc aborting his final lap after unable to improve.

Both drivers attempted to stay in the top ten with the same used soft tyres pressed into service at the end of Q1, but these were long past their best and this was Ferrari’s way to an early exit.

Logan Sargeant qualified P13, having initially held his own among the top ten throughout the session, but felt that he was impeded. Nonetheless, he was a scant 0.008 seconds shy of Sainz’s lap to earn praise from Williams team principal James Vowles over the radio. Kevin Magnussen and Pierre Gasly were the other drivers who were knocked out in Q2.

Sergio Perez was dropped out in Q1 for the second consecutive race, losing his precarious grasp on progressing to Q2 when Albon rocketed out of the drop zone in the final moments of the session.

The Red Bull driver had spent much of the session in the bottom half of the field and sat in the drop zone with five minutes left; although he improved, he fell back into the bottom five once again, days after securing his new two-year contract.

Valtteri Bottas also fell into the drop zone having been unable to improve sufficiently in his final run, just under a tenth from safety, while Esteban Ocon, Nico Hulkenberg, and Zhou Guanyu also dropped out at the first segment.

So an exciting qualifying session at Montreal. It’s refreshing to see Mercedes have genuine pace and to see George Russell taking pole is a welcome sight. Let’s see if he can hold off the championship leader in the race.

Canadian Grand Prix, qualifying results:
1 George Russell Mercedes 1:12.000
2 Max Verstappen Red Bull 1:12.000
3 Lando Norris McLaren 1:12.021
4 Oscar Piastri McLaren 1:12.103
5 Daniel Ricciardo RB 1:12.178
6 Fernando Alonso Aston Martin 1:12.228
7 Lewis Hamilton Mercedes 1:12.280
8 Yuki Tsunoda RB 1:12.414
9 Lance Stroll Aston Martin 1:12.701
10 Alexander Albon Williams 1:12.796
11 Charles Leclerc Ferrari 1:12.691
12 Carlos Sainz Ferrari 1:12.728
13 Logan Sargeant Williams 1:12.736
14 Kevin Magnussen Haas 1:12.916
15 Pierre Gasly Alpine 1:12.940
16 Sergio Perez Red Bull 1:13.326
17 Valtteri Bottas Sauber 1:13.366
18 Esteban Ocon Alpine 1:13.435
19 Nico Hulkenberg Haas 1:13.978
20 Zhou Guanyu Sauber 1:14.292

Charles Leclerc finally wins his home race at Monaco after many set backs at this event. This year’s Formula 1 race wasn’t the most exciting and was largely processional following a red flag and yet this street race victory is special to the Scuderia Ferrari driver.

An ecstatic Leclerc crossed the finishing line 7.1 seconds clear of Oscar Piastri to claim his first-ever victory at the Monaco Grand Prix, after overcoming the McLaren driver at two standing starts after an early red flag, and then set the pace sufficiently to deny a tactical advantage.

Despite periods of pressure from Piastri over the 76 laps of uninterrupted running following the early stoppage, Leclerc absorbed it all and did enough to anticipate a potential McLaren upset by backing up the pack to prevent a potential pitstop window.

In the final stages, Leclerc dropped Piastri to build up a gap that surpassed eight seconds, before electing to back off and “bring it home” to win.

“No words can explain that,” Leclerc said after the race. “It’s such a difficult race, I think the fact that twice I’ve been starting on pole and I couldn’t make it makes it a lot better.

“It was a difficult race emotionally, because already 15 laps from the end you’re hoping nothing happens. I was thinking a lot more to my dad than a lot more when I was driving.

“At first, we had quite a lot of margin but there was 78 laps to do. There was a big portion of the race where I had to manage the gap with George, but then I could push a lot more.”

A first-lap shunt produced the early red flag, as Kevin Magnussen attempted to squeeze his Haas down the inside of Sergio Perez at Beau Rivage. The two made contact. Perez’s car sustained heavy damage as he was tipped into the opposite wall, and also wiped out Nico Hulkenberg in the process.

Heavy damage to the barriers created a 40-minute delay to the race, but that proved not to be the only moment on the opening lap: Carlos Sainz also sustained a front-left puncture into Turn 1 while attempting to pass Oscar Piastri for second, which sent him to the back of the field as he initially pulled over at Casino Square.

The Ferrari driver was handed a lucky break when he was reinstated to his third-place grid slot at the restart.

This changed the dynamic of the race considerably as the field swapped tyres to satisfy the rule necessitating both compounds to be run, theoretically ensuring that everyone could run to the end without stopping.

As such, a tactical game emerged between the Ferraris and McLarens as they tried to deny and create a pitstop window respectively; Leclerc was tasked with slowing the pace down to limit the possibility that Lando Norris could clear George Russell sufficiently to get a free pitstop.

As the laps flew by, McLaren’s chance of causing an upset by giving Norris fresh tyres was reduced as Carlos Sainz did his bit to keep Norris from making further progress on Russell – the gap stalling at about 15 seconds.

With ten laps to go and with no chance for the McLarens to make a stop, Leclerc held his nerve to win – and left Piastri in the clutches of Sainz, who also still had Norris sat on his tail. But neither Sainz nor Norris could make a challenge to claim P2, giving Piastri second.

George Russell held on for fifth after holding off Max Verstappen for over 25 laps despite the Red Bull driver having fresher tyres; Lewis Hamilton’s stop from seventh thanks to a free pitstop window to Yuki Tsunoda gave Verstappen the chance to stop too, but the defending champion could not make the most of his newer hard tyres to mount a pass. Hamilton retained seventh as a result.

Tsunoda claimed eighth after absorbing pressure from Alex Albon throughout the opening 70 laps of the race, banking tyre life in the process to leave the Williams driver for dust in the race’s final act. Through Albon, Williams secured its first points of the season – also the team’s first scoring finish at Monaco since 2017.

Pierre Gasly survived a first-lap encounter with Alpine teammate Esteban Ocon to score the final point. Ocon attempted a lunge at Portier on the opening lap to make tyre-to-tyre contact – which sent him slightly airborne and ultimately caused his retirement.

So congratulations to Charles Leclerc in finally winning his home race. This is fantastic result for the Ferrari driver after setting the pace from opening practice to getting pole in qualifying and this race victory is the perfect way to sign off this Monaco Grand Prix.

Monaco Grand Prix, race results:
1 Charles Leclerc Ferrari 2:23:15.554
2 Oscar Piastri McLaren +7.152s
3 Carlos Sainz Ferrari +7.585s
4 Lando Norris McLaren +8.650s
5 George Russell Mercedes +13.309s
6 Max Verstappen Red Bull +13.853s
7 Lewis Hamilton Mercedes +14.908s
8 Yuki Tsunoda RB +1 lap
9 Alexander Albon Williams +1 lap
10 Pierre Gasly Alpine +1 lap
11 Fernando Alonso Aston Martin +2 laps
12 Daniel Ricciardo RB +2 laps
13 Valtteri Bottas Sauber +2 laps
14 Lance Stroll Aston Martin +2 laps
15 Logan Sargeant Williams +2 laps
16 Zhou Guanyu Sauber +2 laps
Esteban Ocon Alpine DNF
Sergio Perez Red Bull DNF
Nico Hulkenberg Haas DNF
Kevin Magnussen Haas DNF

Charles Leclerc achieved Scuderia Ferrari’s 250th pole position in Formula 1 by taking the top spot for the Monaco Grand Prix. The home favourite edged out Oscar Piastri in the McLaren with Carlos Sainz only third quickest.

The Scuderia Ferrari driver was in zone throughout the Friday and Saturday sessions in Monaco, and built up his speed over the sessions to eventually set a time with one minute, 10.270 seconds – a tenth shy of Lewis Hamilton’s record pole time set in 2019.

“It was nice, the feeling after a qualifying lap is always very special here,” Leclerc said. “I’m really happy about the lap.”

“Qualifying is not everything, as much as it helps Sunday’s race we need to put it all together tomorrow. I need a good launch and when we do that, hopefully Carlos [Sainz] can follow me and put us in a 1-2. If we are 1-2 we can control the race.”

Oscar Piastri was closest challenger to Leclerc, but was just shy of taking the Ferrari in the battle for pole.

Max Verstappen struggled throughout the Monaco Grand Prix weekend with the ride of his Red Bull throughout the final two sectors, but ultimately came unstuck in the opening sector of his final lap where he narrowly survived a shunt with the Sainte Devote exit barrier. This forced the championship leader to abort his lap, and suffered a drop down the order.

Carlos Sainz took third position, while Lando Norris made it into the top four after recovering from a late breakout from the Q1 drop zone.

George Russell also outqualified Verstappen as Mercedes seemed in stronger form throughout the Monaco weekend thus far, although Lewis Hamilton could not quite jump his old title rival and had to be content with seventh.

Yuki Tsunoda took eighth over Alex Albon, who ran off-sequence in Q3 to claim a lap good enough for ninth, as Pierre Gasly completed the top ten.

Gasly knocked out his Alpine teammate Esteban Ocon in Q2 with a late lap that booked the ex-AlphaTauri driver’s place in the top ten shootout. Ocon joined Nico Hulkenberg, Daniel Ricciardo, Lance Stroll, and Kevin Magnussen in the bottom five of the qualifying session.

Fernando Alonso and Sergio Perez were the biggest losers in Q1, as both drivers were left exposed towards the end of the session by their inability to find a competitive lap.

Alonso’s final lap initially set him into P13, but he drop down the order as a host of other drivers shook off the pressure to improve at the final of the 18-minute session. This push the Aston Martin driver, who was so close in taking pole last year, down into P16.

Perez spent the majority of the session towards the back of the order and, after falling into the drop zone, could not climb out as his final lap of the session failed.

The two were separated by Logan Sargeant, as Sauber duo Valtteri Bottas and Zhou Guanyu propped up the order.

Congratulations to Charles Leclerc in taking pole position for the Monaco Grand Prix. This was an important qualifying session of the season as overtaking around Monte Carlo is near impossible so starting at the front is the perfect chance to win. With the world champion Max Verstappen only on row three, it is looking good for the Ferrari driver to triump. Bring on race day.

Monaco Grand Prix, qualifying results:
1 Charles Leclerc Ferrari 1:10.270
2 Oscar Piastri McLaren 1:10.424
3 Carlos Sainz Ferrari 1:10.518
4 Lando Norris Red Bull 1:10.542
5 George Russell Mercedes 1:10.543
6 Max Verstappen Red Bull 1:10.567
7 Lewis Hamilton Mercedes 1:10.621
8 Yuki Tsunoda RB 1:10.858
9 Alexander Albon Williams 1:10.948
10 Pierre Gasly Alpine 1:11.311
11 Esteban Ocon Alpine 1:11.285
12 Nico Hulkenberg Haas 1:11.440
13 Daniel Ricciardo RB 1:11.482
14 Lance Stroll Aston Martin 1:11.563
15 Kevin Magnussen Haas 1:11.725
16 Fernando Alonso Aston Martin 1:12.019
17 Logan Sargeant Williams 1:12.020
18 Sergio Perez Red Bull 1:12.060
19 Valtteri Bottas Sauber 1:12.512
20 Zhou Guanyu Sauber 1:13.028

Triple Formula 1 champion Max Verstappen scored victory at Imola after surviving a late race challenge from McLaren’s Lando Norris. Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc finished third to the cheer of the tifosi.

Higher tyre degradation than expected compared to when Red Bull struggled badly for car balance in practice on Friday appeared to ease Verstappen’s path, as he was also boosted by the setup work completed at his team’s factory ahead of qualifying.

Norris did mount an exciting late-race charge as he worked his hard tyres better than Verstappen in the second of two stints, but the defending champion held on to win by 0.7 seconds.

At the start, Norris did gain slightly on polesitter Verstappen when they reacted to the five red lights, but his line took him to the outside of the track’s first braking point at the Tamburello chicane where he could not get near enough to make an attack.

As Leclerc and his Ferrari teammate Carlos Sainz slotted in behind the leaders, Verstappen was clear enough to prevent Norris of DRS even when it was activated on lap two of 63.

Verstappen then just up his race pace from his rival to build his lead to 6.5 seconds by lap 22 – although he did make his life harder later in the race for abusing track limits to such an extent he was formally warned by the FIA.

Norris initially dropped Leclerc in the first stint before the Ferrari closed back in, with Norris becoming the first of the leaders to pit on lap 22 to go from the mediums they had all started on to the hards, with Verstappen coming in two laps later.

Leclerc was left out until lap 25, which meant Norris eased away pushing early in the second stint and Sainz stopping even later meant Oscar Piastri undercut the Ferrari for fourth – having chased Sainz closely for most of the first stint.

Verstappen started the final stint with a 5.6 seconds lead thanks to Lando’s earlier stop, with the Red Bull driver then rebuilding his lead over the next stage, although not as rapidly as at the start.

Indeed, at this stage, Leclerc reduced into what had been a three-second Norris advantage post-pitstop and got to within DRS range of the McLaren by lap 43.

But an off at the Variante Alta chicane shortly afterwards stopped Leclerc’s momentum, just when Lando’s hard tyre stint was transformed and he started to quickly catch Verstappen, who complained that his tyre compound did not work.

Norris pushed hard – saving several wild moments at the track’s first two chicanes as the race traversed its final five laps – but he wound up just short, with Leclerc finishing 7.1 seconds further back in third.

Piastri came home 6.2 seconds back from Leclerc, while Sainz ended falling back to 8.2 seconds off in the McLaren.

Lewis Hamilton had a trip through the Acque Mineral gravel on his way to sixth, with his Mercedes teammate George Russell stopping for a second time late on and dropping down to seventh position, but with enough pace back on the mediums to secure the fastest lap bonus point.

Sergio Perez rescued just eighth from his P11 grid starting spot – the Red Bull driver starting on an alternative strategy and running long on hards, with most of the frontrunners easily battling by him after they pitted before he himself climbed on the mediums for the races second half.

Alex Albon was the race’s only retirement – the Williams driver having his race ruined by a stop/go penalty for leaving his first stop with a loose wheel, after which he went back to the pits slowly and ended up two laps down before he was withdrawn 10 laps from the end.

So an exciting end to the Imola race with the chase from Lando Norris and yet Max Verstappen held his nerve to win. Congratulations to Red Bull Racing in winning after a tricky start to the weekend. Hard work paid off with this triumph.

Emilia-Romagna Grand Prix, race results:
1 Max Verstappen Red Bull 1:25:25.252
2 Lando Norris McLaren +0.725s
3 Charles Leclerc Ferrari +7.916s
4 Oscar Piastri McLaren +14.132s
5 Carlos Sainz Ferrari +22.325s
6 Lewis Hamilton Mercedes +35.104s
7 George Russell Mercedes +47.154s
8 Sergio Perez Red Bull +54.776s
9 Lance Stroll Aston Martin +79.556s
10 Yuki Tsunoda RB +1 lap
11 Nico Hulkenberg Haas +1 lap
12 Kevin Magnussen Haas +1 lap
13 Daniel Ricciardo RB +1 lap
14 Esteban Ocon Alpine +1 lap
15 Zhou Guanyu Sauber +1 lap
16 Pierre Gasly Alpine +1 lap
17 Logan Sargeant Williams +1 lap
18 Valtteri Bottas Sauber +1 lap
19 Fernando Alonso Aston Martin +1 lap
20 Alex Albon Williams DNF

Max Verstappen earned his eighth successive pole position for the Emilia Romagna Grand Prix beating both McLarens at Imola.

After struggling on Friday in a tricky practice sessions, the Red Bull worked on the RB20 setup and Max Verstappen delivered the result with pole on Saturday.

Verstappen needed late efforts to set his best times in the opening two parts of qualifying, but led from the off in Q3 – his first run at a time of one minute, 14.869 seconds ahead of Lando Norris and Charles Leclerc.

The Ferrari drivers then headed the pack on the final efforts, where Leclerc could not recover enough time from missing his personal best in the first sector and stayed third.

Behind, Verstappen set purple sectors in the first two thirds of the lap but slight error through the final corner – Rivazza 2 – meant he was vulnerable even as he improved the top time to one minute, 14.746 seconds.

Miami Grand Prix winner Norris also improved but paid the price for a slower middle sector than he had managed on his opening go in Q3, with Oscar Piastri then stealing ahead of his teammate and Leclerc as he beat Verstappen in the final sector to end up 0.074 seconds adrift.

Despite setting the second quickest time, the race stewards have decided to penalise Piastri with a three-place grid drop after impeding Kevin Magnussen late in Q1. This penalty promotes his McLaren teammate Norris onto the front row.

Behind the trio came Carlos Sainz, George Russell and Yuki Tsunoda, who had shone with a rapid Q2 time before fading from the lead fight.

Next came Lewis Hamilton in eighth, Daniel Ricciardo in ninth and Nico Hulkenberg rounding out the top ten.

Verstappen topped Q2 ahead of Leclerc, in which Sergio Perez was knocked out despite setting his best time at the end of the middle segment.

Esteban Ocon, Lance Stroll, Alex Albon and Pierre Gasly were also eliminated at this stage.

In Q1, which Verstappen led also ahead of Leclerc when the Ferraris progressed on the mediums, last-gasp personal bests were not enough to save Valtteri Bottas, Logan Sargeant and Zhou Guanyu in 16-17-18.

Magnussen ended up P19 ahead of Fernando Alonso, who missed the start of the opening segment as Aston Martin worked to repair the car he had damaged during his FP3 crash.

But the 2005 race winner abandoned his final effort as he failed to improve on his personal best late on having made a mistake and gone through the Tamburello exit gravel on his second attempt.

Sargeant later got his lap time deleted and was demoted to last position on the grid.

So a dramatic turnaround for Red Bull with Max struggling in FP1 and FP2, but when the matter counts, the triple champion produced the result to take pole.

Emilia Romagna Grand Prix, qualifying results:
1 Max Verstappen Red Bull 1:14.746
2 Lando Norris McLaren 1:14.837
3 Charles Leclerc Ferrari 1:14.970
4 Carlos Sainz Ferrari 1:15.233
5 Oscar Piastri McLaren 1:14.820*
6 George Russell Mercedes 1:15.234
7 Yuki Tsunoda RB 1:15.465
8 Lewis Hamilton Mercedes 1:15.504
9 Daniel Ricciardo RB 1:15.674
10 Nico Hulkenberg Haas 1:15.980
11 Sergio Perez Red Bull 1:15.706
12 Esteban Ocon Alpine 1:15.906
13 Lance Stroll Aston Martin 1:15.992
14 Alex Albon Williams 1:16.200
15 Pierre Gasly Alpine 1:16.381
16 Valtteri Bottas Sauber 1:16.626
17 Zhou Guanyu Sauber 1:16.834
18 Kevin Magnussen Haas 1:16.854
19 Fernando Alonso Aston Martin 1:16.917
20 Logan Sargeant Williams No time
*Three-place grid penalty for impeding Kevin Magnussen

Lando Norris finally scored his first Formula 1 race victory in the 2024 Miami Grand Prix, thanks to the mid-race safety car which helped the McLaren driver to beat Max Verstappen.

The victory ends Lando’s streak as having the most podiums without a Grand Prix victory, with McLaren scoring its first such win since the 2021 Italian Grand Prix after Oscar Piastri’s 2023 Qatar sprint race success.

At the start, Verstappen made a smooth getaway while Leclerc fell backwards off the start line and got swamped before the late-braking Sergio Perez nearly wiped out Verstappen and pushed others including Norris wide at Turn 1, which allowed Leclerc back to second.

As Verstappen escaped to a healthy lead of a few seconds, Piastri edged ahead of Sainz as the first corners of lap one of 57 unfolded to run third behind Leclerc.

The Ferrari driver then slid around more on the mediums all the leaders had started on and without DRS to Verstappen ahead Piastri was able to pass by and then led the Ferrari drivers for much of the first stint.

Behind, Perez held up Norris a bit further back from the fight for second before he became the first of the leaders to pit for hards on lap 17.

Leclerc, who Sainz wanted to be waved by, then pitted at the end of lap 19, shortly after which Verstappen made a mistake at the chicane, knocking a bollard off the kerb and carrying it through his car until he reached the exit of Turn 16.

When this fell off a virtual safety car was called so the marshals could retrieve the bollard, after which Verstappen stopped at the end of lap 23.

Four laps later, Piastri and Sainz pitted, which meant Norris, who had been reducing Sainz’s previous advantage with a string of fastest laps, moved into the lead.

His race was then transformed when Kevin Magnussen and Logan Sargeant collided at Turn 2, with the Haas driver penalised for leaving his nose alongside the right rear of the Williams as they headed off to Turn 3, with the contact pitching Sargeant off backwards and the wreckage having to be cleared under the safety car.

McLaren was able to pit Norris then, although he did a full lap at the safety car delta speed before coming in to switch to the hards and subsequently getting out ahead of Verstappen, who had been picked up by the safety car before he and the rest were waved through.

The race restarted on lap 33, with Norris having to defend hard at Turn 1’s inside against Verstappen’s attack before the McLaren driver was able to shoot clear to escape DRS over the first lap back at racing speed.

Leclerc was close enough to Verstappen to have a look to Turn 11’s inside on this lap before he dropped back out of DRS to the Red Bull and it became a fight at the front.

But Norris’s hards being six laps younger provided a critical advantage, as ten laps later his lead had reached the three-second mark – his rival ruing his RB20 understeering on the hards, a situation Verstappen called a “disaster” over his team radio.

With five laps left, Norris’s lead was up to 6.1 seconds and he continued to pull away to a final winning margin of 7.6 seconds, with Leclerc 2.3 seconds further back in third.

Sainz ended up fourth after two controversial battles with Piastri post-restart. Then first involved both drivers going deep at Turn 11 on lap 34, with Sainz feeling he was pushed off but the stewards not deeming the incident worthy of a penalty.

On lap 39, Sainz attacked at Turn 17 at the end of the back straight but lost the rear of his car and, as it swung around it, hit Piastri’s front wing and broke it, with both drivers able to continue battling to Turn 1 where Piastri went deep and Sainz could run clear.

Piastri was then passed by Perez and a resurgent Lewis Hamilton at Turn 11 shortly afterwards, with McLaren soon pitting him to replace his front wing and dropping him to the back of the field.

Oscar battled back to finish P13 – McLaren warning him during fights not to have another clash and risk the safety car reappearing and erasing his team-mate’s lead.

Another safety car stopper, Yuki Tsunoda, finished seventh, ahead of George Russell and Fernando Alonso, who fought his way by Esteban Ocon late on.

With P10, Ocon scores Alpine’s first point of the 2024 season.

So congratulations to Lando Norris in winning his first Formula 1 race. Been a long time coming and yet fully deserved it. Brilliant team effort by McLaren and this result is an excellent reward for the hard work. Hopefully the first of many for Lando.

Miami Grand Prix, race results:
1 Lando Norris McLaren 1:30:49.876
2 Max Verstappen Red Bull +7.612s
3 Charles Leclerc Ferrari +9.920s
4 Carlos Sainz Ferrari +11.407s
5 Sergio Perez Red Bull +14.650s
6 Lewis Hamilton Mercedes +16.585s
7 Yuki Tsunoda RB +26.185s
8 George Russell Mercedes +34.789s
9 Fernando Alonso Aston Martin +37.107s
10 Esteban Ocon Alpine +39.746s
11 Nico Hulkenberg Haas +40.789s
12 Pierre Gasly Alpine +44.958s
13 Oscar Piastri McLaren +49.756s
14 Zhou Guanyu Sauber +49.979s
15 Daniel Ricciardo RB +50.956s
16 Valtteri Bottas Sauber +52.356s
17 Lance Stroll Aston Martin +55.173s
18 Kevin Magnussen Haas +64.683s
19 Alex Albon Williams +76.091s
Logan Sargeant Williams DNF