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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2026 Monaco Grand Prix
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Published by
Keith Collantine