Lando Norris reignited his 2025 Formula 1 World Championship hopes with an assured victory at the recent Monaco Grand Prix. The British star was much fancied to win his maiden title this season following last year’s unsuccessful battle with Max Verstappen, and those hopes were bolstered when he won the season opener in Australia.
However, throughout the races that followed, he has been consistently overshadowed by teammate Oscar Piastri. The Aussie had won four of the opening seven races, pulling out an early championship lead, but his more experienced teammate struck back on the streets of Monte Carlo.
Pole position is at its most valuable in the principality, and that proved to be the case once again this year. Norris secured first on the grid with a blistering effort in qualifying, and he ensured that the pole sitter would go on to win the race for the third straight year. But the big news coming out of Monaco isn’t just that his triumph has reduced the gap to his championship-leading teammate, but it has also seen his odds of winning the title slashed dramatically. The popular Bodog news and betting site now makes Norris a +160 second favorite to win the championship, just behind the +120 priced frontrunner Piastri.
But despite the Brit being the latest in a long line of Monaco pole-sitters going on and securing the victory, qualifying first isn’t always a guarantee to win. Here are three times the pole sitter was beaten in Monte Carlo.
Disastrous Ferrari Strategy Costs Leclerc Victory
In the first half of the 2022 season, Charles Leclerc was doing everything he could to take the title fight to reigning champion Max Verstappen. After retiring from the lead in the previous race in Barcelona, he was in dire need of reigniting his hopes, and he successfully put his Ferrari on pole in his hometown. Unfortunately for the Monegasque star, though, the weather – and some disastrous calls from the pit wall – ruined his hopes.
Rain arrived just before the race, causing pandemonium as teams scrambled to adapt. Leclerc initially led the pack, but a crucial pit-stop error from the Scuderia sealed his fate. Red Bull had pitted Sergio Perez early from fourth place, putting him on intermediate tires rather than full wets, and he immediately began reducing the deficit to the top three.
Ferrari then took far too long to react, pitting Leclerc two laps later and allowing the Mexican driver to overtake. And if that wasn’t bad enough, the team compounded Leclerc’s misery when they were indecisive in calling their lead driver into the pit lane for a second time, first telling him to box and then telling him to stay out, only after he had already started making his way down the pit lane. That resulted in Leclerc being double-stacked behind teammate Carlos Sainz, causing him to lose even more ground and ultimately emerge in fourth place.
Perez, meanwhile, never looked like surrendering the lead once he emerged in first place. His assured drive secured the victory, while Leclerc’s championship hopes never recovered. He did, however, go on to break his curse two years later.
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Leclerc’s Hopes Ended Before the Race Even Starts
One year prior, Charles Leclerc’s Monaco curse was in full swing. Just as he would do the following year, the hometown hero, surprisingly, put his Ferrari on pole. However, during his final qualifying attempt, the Monegasque star slammed into the barriers, causing a red flag and prematurely ending the session. While the crash secured him pole position, its consequences were far-reaching.
Overnight, the Italian team inspected the car and ruled out gearbox damage. Yet, when race day arrived, disaster struck. Just moments before the race, Leclerc reported an issue with the driveshaft on his reconnaissance lap. Unable to make it to the grid, he was forced to retire before the race even began.
With Leclerc sidelined, Max Verstappen inherited pole position, and the Red Bull ace made no mistakes. The Flying Dutchman surged to a commanding victory, leading every lap and taking the championship lead from Lewis Hamilton.
Kimi Räikkönen Pipped by Teammate Vettel’s Strategy
In 2017, Ferrari’s Sebastian Vettel and Mercedes’ Lewis Hamilton were locked in an epic battle for the world championship.
The German driver had finished inside the top two in each of the opening five races, winning two of them and opening up an early championship lead. However, in Monaco, it was his teammate Kimi Räikkönen who grabbed pole position.
On race day, the Iceman looked poised to end his five-year victory drought, but his team’s strategy firmly favored his title-seeking teammate. The Finnish pole-sitter led the opening stages, controlling the pace and building up an early lead. But with the championship firmly in mind, the Scuderia opted to pull Kimi into the pits early. That decision gave teammate Vettel clear air, and the German would put it to good use.
Now in the lead, the former four-time world champion kicked on, setting fastest lap after fastest lap before pitting and emerging well clear of Räikkönen. He went on to cruise to victory, while the Finn had to settle for second place, and his long wait for a race victory would continue.
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