Formula 1 Monaco Grand Prix Prediction: Norris on pole position in Monaco for the first time in his career

Glamorous Monte Carlo will host the F1 race for the 71st time in its history. It is expected that Saturday's qualifying will be crucial for the final standings on the narrow streets, but... There could be a little rain on Sunday, and the new rules stipulate a minimum of two pit stops for Sunday's race. Who will cope best in such conditions? Can Verstappen get his third win in the Principality? Will we see McLaren's first win in Monaco in 17 years? Or maybe we are in for a surprise and an unexpected winner? The European part of the Formula 1 World Championship season began with the race in Imola last weekend. Drivers and teams are once again in a period that offers them no chance to rest, they are in the middle of the so-called triple header that takes them from Imola to Monte Carlo and immediately after that to Barcelona.

Monaco GP

This race took place in the first season of the World Championship in 1950 and was the first time the Ferrari team appeared. Monaco was not raced in the following four years, but it returned in 1955, and since then, the race in the Principality has not been held only once, in 2020 due to the pandemic. From a technical point of view, Monaco is also special. The cars must be set up to generate as much downforce as possible and provide good grip to the drivers when racing through the city streets. Only 25 percent of the lap is driven at full throttle. The average lap speed is 162 km/h, and the drivers must change gears 44 times in one lap. There are 19 corners, and the new lap record was set by Lando Norris this weekend, 1:09.954. An important novelty for this year is a change in the regulations that requires drivers to change tires at least twice during the race. This was caused by last year's race, where we had a red flag on the first lap, so all the drivers changed tires during the break, and most of them didn't even go into the pits afterwards. There were no changes in the top ten compared to the starting order.

Great qualifications for McLaren

Lando Norris in McLaren won the best grid position in qualifying for the Monaco Grand Prix. In a very tense finale, the Briton managed to be slightly faster than Charles Leclerc in Ferrari and his teammate, Oscar Piastri. Fourth grid position was won by Lewis Hamilton in Ferrari, ahead of Max Verstappen in Red Bull, but that changed because in the first qualifying round the Briton interfered with Verstappen on his fast lap. The judges decided that Hamilton will start three places below, from 7th place. Praise for his performance goes to Isack Hadjar, who placed the Racing Bulls car in sixth place. Mercedes had a nightmare qualifying. First, Kimi Antonelli ended up in the protective barrier at the end of Q1, and then George Russell's car stopped cooperating at the start of Q2.

The judges took away three positions from Hamilton and Stroll

For blocking other drivers during qualifying, Lewis Hamilton and Lance Stroll were penalized with a loss of three positions from their qualifying positions. Such a penalty will have a much greater impact on Hamilton than on Stroll's race. Ferrari looked good in qualifying for the Monaco Grand Prix. Charles Leclerc was in the running for pole position, and in the end, he took second place on the grid. Lewis Hamilton was a little slower than his teammate, but still won a very good fourth place. However, on Sunday, he will be forced to start from seventh place on a track that offers virtually no overtaking opportunities. The reason for this is the penalty Hamilton received for blocking Max Verstappen on his fast lap during Q1. Lewis was not on the timed lap and was moving slowly towards the second turn, and Verstappen was racing at full speed and found the Ferrari car on the race track at that second turn. Lance Stroll continues to be one of the anti-heroes of this racing weekend. It's really hard to explain what happens to the Canadian when he gets into a car, but for the second day in a row, he managed to earn a penalty for blocking another driver. On Friday, he suddenly ran into Charles Leclerc's race path, which led to a collision between an Aston Martin and a Ferrari. For this, he was punished with the loss of one position at the start of Sunday's race, and then in Saturday's qualifying, he continued to excel negatively. He got in the way of Pierre Gasly entering the chicane after the tunnel, and the stewards gave him a penalty of losing another three starting places.

Expert Betting Tips

This is a race in which the starting position is the most important part of the strategy. Lando Norris will have a chance to bring McLaren the gold from Monaco after 17 long years. Even last weekend, we saw that both McLaren drivers have high ambitions, they have perhaps the fastest car on the grid, and since Lando starts from pole position, he has the most chances to win this historic race, and we believe that he will have the fastest lap in the end. He broke the track record on Sunday, so it’s expected of him to fly in the streets of Monaco.

OUR PREDICTION: Fastest lap – Lando Norris