Luke’s Weekend Take – Monaco GP 2023

In FP2 we see 2 more victims to the close walls of Monaco as Yuki Tsunoda clips the Apex of the bus stop chicane also getting a puncture much like Hulkenberg in FP1, however Tsunoda manages to limp back to the pits avoiding any Red Flags. Despite Tsunodas best efforts we still see the Red Flag come out in FP2 as towards the end of the session Carlos Sainz crashes after he hits his front right tyre on the Apex of the swimming pool chicane and breaking his front right suspension putting him straight into the wall ending the session early. Red Bull quickly put FP1 in their rear-view mirrors and they sorted out all their kinks with Max Verstappen’s car as Max was looking more comfortable in FP2 where he claimed the top spot in FP2 followed by Charles Leclerc and Carlos Sainz.

On Saturday, the sun was shining again and FP3 was underway with Charles Leclerc unhappy with the car as he was complaining it was bottoming out in sector 2 and saying to the team that they need to sort this out ahead of the qualifying later that day. Alpine had some mechanical issues with Esteban Ocon in FP3 where Ocon momentarily stopped in the tunnel before managing to move his care and slowly made it round the track back to the pits, this was potentially due to some hydraulic issue with the Alpine. Haas also were a victim to some issues where we see Kevin Magnussen having to stop in the middle of the track and bringing out the VSC until the marshals in Monaco cleared the Haas off the track. And to end FP3 early we saw Lewis Hamilton go into the barriers at Turn 5 where Hamilton was going too fast for the corner and lost the rear end of the car bringing out the Red Flag for the 4^th time this weekend. In FP3 we saw Max Verstappen being the quickest followed by Sergio Perez and Lance Stroll.

We then head into Qualifying which in my opinion is the most exciting session of the weekend and the most crucial session for all the drivers given that as we all know ‘Position is Key’ in Monaco. The biggest upset of Q1 was that we see Sergio Perez crashing in Turn 1 where like Albon he was simply going too fast and slid right into the barriers bringing out the Red Flag once more and ending his qualifying early. This shunt into the barriers will most likely mean that Perez might need to take on a new gearbox ahead of the race tomorrow. Perez ended up being eliminated in Q1 alongside both Haas cars, Logan Sargeant and Zhou Guanyu.

In Q2 we see another unexpected departure from Qualifying as we see Lance Stroll finish in the bottom 5 where his teammate Alonso was comfortably in the top 10 in Q2. We nearly saw the Red Flag for the 6^th time so far this weekend as Lando Norris escapes a big crash coming into Tabac as he clips the Apex on the bus stop chicane breaking his front left suspension and then headed straight into the barriers into Tabac. Lando Norris managed to keep the car going and slowly made it round the track back to the pits where the Mclaren team quickly got going onto repairing the suspension damage for Q3 as Norris narrowly makes it into Q3.

Q3 was absolutely exhilarating as we see the top 10 go full beans out at the Monaco track trying to get Pole. Mclaren managed to get Lando Norris’s car ready in time Norris to go round the track and set a time around Monaco which is pretty impressive given that they managed to do a 20-minute job in around 10 mins. Then the race for pole started as we see provisional pole change between 5 different drivers in the last 3 minutes as we see Ocon put up a brilliant lap in his Alpine snatching Provisional Pole from Max Verstappen, to then see Charles Leclerc attempt to be the first driver since Ayrton Senna to take 3 consecutive poles around Monaco, this was quickly taken away from Leclerc when Fernando Alonso puts his Aston Martin on Provisional Pole followed by an impressive sector 3 from Max Verstappen where he managed to make up over 2 tenths in the last sector while brushing multiple walls.

Qualifying Ended up with Max on Pole followed by Alonso, Leclerc, Ocon, Sainz, Hamilton, Gasly, Russell, Tsunoda and Norris forming the top 10. Unfortunately for Charles Leclerc the Monaco Curse strikes again as he picks up a 3-place grid penalty for impeding Lando Norris in Q3 which pushes Leclerc from 3^rd to 6^th place tomorrow. He will have to hope for some miracle to be able to take his first win at his home Grand Prix in Monaco where in the history of the race, it has always been won by the top 3 positions on the starting grid.

This gives me slight hope that tomorrow might be an interesting race with this grid tomorrow especially if the rain comes and strategy will be a crucial factor in determining the race winner. Who do you think will emerge victorious tomorrow, myself I just hope that we get a bit more action than the previous years around Monaco.