After claiming pole position with the fastest-ever lap of Monaco last year, Lando Norris predicted his new record would stand for a long time.
He may well be right. Formula 1’s new regulations produced the slowest Monaco Grand Prix pole position time since 2017:
Andrea Kimi Antonelli’s pole-winning lap time of 1’12.051 was over two seconds slower than Norris’s time last year.
However some teams have adjusted to the new rules better than others. McLaren are experiencing one of their weakest performances so far this year, lapping over two-and-a-half seconds slower than they did in 2025.
Mercedes, by contrast, are just half a second off their 2025 pace. No other team is within 1.2 seconds of their best time from last year:
While Mercedes repeatedly hyped up the potential threat from Ferrari before the race weekend began, Red Bull emerged as their closest competitors. Max Verstappen was only a few hundredths of a second slower than Antonelli, but that time was almost one-and-a-half seconds slower than their best from last year:
Sector times
As the track improved rapidly during the session, most of the leading qualifiers pulled their three quickest sector times together on the final lap. Last year’s pole-winner was a notable exception: Norris lost a significant amount of time with a lock-up. However his suspicion that McLaren were unlikely to qualify higher than the fourth row this year looks right:
| P. | # | Driver | S1 | S2 | S3 | Ultimate lap (deficit) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 12 | Andrea Kimi Antonelli | 18.934 (2) | 33.989 (2) | 19.128 (2) | 1’12.051 |
| 2 | 3 | Max Verstappen | 18.827 (1) | 34.184 (4) | 19.083 (1) | 1’12.094 |
| 3 | 44 | Lewis Hamilton | 19.103 (8) | 33.957 (1) | 19.219 (4) | 1’12.279 |
| 4 | 16 | Charles Leclerc | 18.986 (4) | 34.035 (3) | 19.274 (7) | 1’12.295 (+0.056) |
| 5 | 6 | Isack Hadjar | 19.001 (5) | 34.202 (5) | 19.231 (6) | 1’12.434 |
| 6 | 63 | George Russell | 18.970 (3) | 34.253 (6) | 19.222 (5) | 1’12.445 |
| 7 | 1 | Lando Norris | 19.025 (6) | 34.297 (8) | 19.181 (3) | 1’12.503 (+0.262) |
| 8 | 81 | Oscar Piastri | 19.039 (7) | 34.257 (7) | 19.289 (8) | 1’12.585 (+0.039) |
| 9 | 10 | Pierre Gasly | 19.278 (10) | 34.512 (9) | 19.436 (10) | 1’13.226 |
| 10 | 30 | Liam Lawson | 19.209 (9) | 34.709 (10) | 19.355 (9) | 1’13.273 (+0.139) |
| 11 | 23 | Alexander Albon | 19.350 (13) | 34.774 (11) | 19.554 (13) | 1’13.678 (+0.109) |
| 12 | 55 | Carlos Sainz Jnr | 19.342 (12) | 34.796 (12) | 19.561 (14) | 1’13.699 (+0.116) |
| 13 | 27 | Nico Hulkenberg | 19.413 (14) | 34.871 (13) | 19.466 (11) | 1’13.750 (+0.152) |
| 14 | 43 | Franco Colapinto | 19.304 (11) | 35.010 (14) | 19.489 (12) | 1’13.803 (+0.192) |
| 15 | 41 | Arvid Lindblad | 19.449 (15) | 35.016 (15) | 19.600 (15) | 1’14.065 (+0.183) |
| 16 | 87 | Oliver Bearman | 19.566 (18) | 35.178 (16) | 19.890 (18) | 1’14.634 (+0.180) |
| 17 | 31 | Esteban Ocon | 19.620 (19) | 35.247 (17) | 19.800 (16) | 1’14.667 (+0.055) |
| 18 | 5 | Gabriel Bortoleto | 19.493 (17) | 35.314 (19) | 19.876 (17) | 1’14.683 |
| 19 | 11 | Sergio Perez | 19.485 (16) | 35.304 (18) | 19.958 (20) | 1’14.747 |
| 20 | 77 | Valtteri Bottas | 19.862 (21) | 35.420 (20) | 19.909 (19) | 1’15.191 (+0.092) |
| 21 | 14 | Fernando Alonso | 19.764 (20) | 35.556 (21) | 20.029 (21) | 1’15.349 |
| 22 | 18 | Lance Stroll | 19.948 (22) | 35.799 (22) | 20.212 (22) | 1’15.959 (+0.102) |
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Published by
Keith Collantine
Lifelong motor sport fan Keith set up RaceFans in 2005 – when it was originally called F1 Fanatic. Having previously worked as a motoring journalist, Keith began running the site full-time in 2010, achieving a long-held ambition to dedicate his full attention to his passion for motor racing. View all posts by Keith Collantine