{"id":34218,"date":"2025-05-25T02:58:31","date_gmt":"2025-05-25T06:58:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/?p=34218"},"modified":"2025-05-25T02:58:31","modified_gmt":"2025-05-25T06:58:31","slug":"leclerc-left-frustrated-as-norris-takes-monaco-pole-position","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/2025\/05\/25\/leclerc-left-frustrated-as-norris-takes-monaco-pole-position\/","title":{"rendered":"Leclerc left frustrated as Norris takes Monaco Pole Position"},"content":{"rendered":"

Lando Norris put everything together in the final moments of qualifying in Monte Carlo, securing a critical Pole Position.<\/p>\n

Having gone several Grand Prix without a victory of Pole, yesterday’s session was an important boost for Norris.<\/p>\n

The British driver managed to get the edge over teammate Oscar Piastri and Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc.<\/p>\n

It was Leclerc, who was fastest in all free practice sessions, that came closest to defeating the 25-year-old in Monte Carlo.<\/p>\n

When reflecting on his session, the Monegasque believes Ferrari<\/a> lacked the ultimate pace compared to McLaren.<\/p>\n

Norris takes crucial Pole Position in title bid<\/h2>\n

After his spin at the Australian GP, Oscar Piastri has put together an extremely impressive run of results.<\/p>\n

The Australian has generally had the measure of teammate Norris, who is currently 13 points behind Piastri in the standings.<\/p>\n

In Monaco, however, a series of mistakes and scruffy laps prevented the #81 car from setting the fastest time.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Instead it was Norris, who has been vocal about his discomfort in the MCL39, that claimed his second Pole Position of 2025.<\/p>\n

The 25-year-old has worked hard to better optimise this year’s package, with yesterday’s results representing a good step in this pursuit.<\/p>\n

Charles Leclerc was his biggest challenger, with the Ferrari driver consistently fighting at the front in his SF-25<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Leclerc’s own expectations heading into this weekend were not very optimistic, with Ferrari anticipating a difficult challenge in low-speed corners.<\/p>\n

This could not be further from the truth, however, with Ferrari establishing themselves as McLaren’s main rivals in Monaco.<\/p>\n

Because of the specific nature of the Monte Carlo circuit, it would be a stretch to assume that Fred Vasseur’s team can consistently challenge McLaren<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Regardless, this is an impressive showing from the Italian outfit.<\/p>\n

Ferrari, Leclerc within striking range<\/h4>\n

Traditionally, qualifying in Monaco can essentially make or break a driver’s chances of scoring points.<\/p>\n

The same can be said this weekend, although the introduction of a mandatory two-stop could create some surprises in the Grand Prix.<\/p>\n

Ferrari will be frustrated that they don’t have the benefit of two drives fighting at the front.<\/p>\n

Were it not for Lewis Hamilton’s 3-place grid penalty<\/a>, the Scuderia would have two drivers to put pressure on the McLaren duo.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

However, having been relegated to a P7 grid start, the Italian team’s aim of securing victory will be that much harder.<\/p>\n

Still, Leclerc<\/a> is pragmatic about the situation, left with a bitter-sweet feeling to narrowly miss out on Pole Position:<\/p>\n

“Well, there’s always something more to be done. No, I mean, at the end of the day, this was the best we could do.<\/em><\/p>\n

“I think the lap was really good. The first lap was a little bit of a shame because that gives you a bit more confidence for the second run when you have a first good lap.<\/em><\/p>\n

“I couldn’t have that – I had to deal with traffic, but it’s the way it is.<\/em><\/p>\n

“Just obviously very frustrated. We know that we don’t quite have the car to go for wins this year, but this weekend the car felt good.<\/em><\/p>\n

“And starting second here is going to be tricky to then take that first place.”<\/em><\/p>\n

Main photo: Clive Rose\/Getty Images<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Lando Norris put everything together in the final moments of qualifying in Monte Carlo, securing a critical Pole Position. Having gone several Grand Prix without a victory of Pole, yesterday’s session was an important boost for Norris. The British driver managed to get the edge over teammate Oscar Piastri and Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc. It was […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4927,"featured_media":34219,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"no","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[4,3],"tags":[445,2452,444],"class_list":["post-34218","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-formula-1","category-news","tag-charles-leclerc","tag-f1-2025-season","tag-lando-norris"],"modified_by":"Jaden Diaz-Ndisang","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34218","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4927"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=34218"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34218\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":34247,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34218\/revisions\/34247"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/34219"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=34218"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=34218"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=34218"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}