Formula 1 is back to Monaco after two years and with it also the comparison of the times in qualifying: surprisingly from the last races, we saw Charles Leclerc and his Ferrari SF21 score the fastest lap on Saturday. And it is precisely among the winding streets of the Principality that the fastest laps were also in comparison with the times of 2019, although not for everyone.
Definitely the team that has made great progress in two years, and there is no need to compare the times to notice it, is Williams who is celebrating its 750 Grand Prix in Formula 1 here. The Grove team was faster by a second and a half more than the time marked by George Russell in May 2019. In particular, the English driver has taken half a second in the first sector, over seven tenths in the second and just over two in the third. In the final sector, however, for only half a tenth it was not the best in terms of step forward.
To “steal” this sector was the McLaren that has improved by more than two tenths and a half in T3, but also showed a big difference in the central part with a gain of half a second. The first was unchanged with the total improvement of 8 tenths.
They are only six tenths, but for Ferrari they are worth gold as Charles Leclerc returned to Maranello a pole position that had been missing in Formula 1 for a year and a half and in Monaco for four seasons. The Monegasque was not perfect in the first section, even if Carlos Sainz more or less managed to match Sebastian Vettel’s time in 2019. Also for the Red the second sector saw a clear improvment of half a second and more than two tenths in the final part. Great mechanical grip and excellent tire handling favored the SF21 over its rivals.
Alfa Romeo also surprised An excellent qualifying session by Antonio Giovinazzi, complete with a Q3 presence, led the team to improve by more than half a second in two years. Like McLaren and Ferrari, Alfa is also talking about steps forward from the Mirabeau onwards, while the sector that includes the Casino ascent has remained virtually unchanged.
The AlphaTauri, on the other hand, which at the time of the Toro Rosso was already in Q3, this year only improved three tenths in the central part, while it has hardly changed in the remaining sections. The same situation also for Aston Martin which, compared to the 2019 Racing Point eliminated in Q1, this year reached the final part of qualifying with Sebastian Vettel.
As for the fiercest rivals in the fight for pole position , Red Bull has hardly changed what they showed two years ago. The sectors in which Max Verstappen gave his best were almost always the first and the second, but in the best lap the central one practically canceled the third. In doing so, the time did not change that much and the first position went to the opponents.
Let’s now pass to the slower teams and among these the first is the Alpine which, if two years ago could boast a place in the top ten, this year had to settle for 11th place. Esteban Ocon, in his best lap, lost just over a tenth between the first and second sectors and another also in the third, limiting the damage to only two and a half tenths lost in two years. Anonymous, compared to normality, is the Mercedes that at least Valtteri Bottas finished in the second row, but the poleman of 2019, Lewis Hamilton, did not go beyond the seventh place. This collapse of the Black Arrows was highlighted between the first and third sectors. Here, in fact, he lost about half a second, while the 55 thousandths gained in the central one were not enough to not lose more than 4 tenths in two years.
Again in last position, without particular surprise, is the Haas who lost 7 tenths in both the first two sectors and almost half a second in the last, being the worst in all three and losing 1.8 seconds in total. The only one on the track, Nikita Mazepin, did no better than 19th place, while in 2019 Kevin Magnussen even managed to qualify for Q3.
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