Pole in Monaco is like a shot of amphetamine, and you could see it as Lando Norris walked his happy way from the garage past selfie-hunters to the press conference above the harbour.
He had posted a record lap time and, better, assuaged a hundred doubts that have nagged at him recently. ‘Lando, Lando,’ his groupies shouted. He shook hands with one well-wisher, for nothing concerned him at least for now.
‘Monaco is a beautiful place,’ he rhapsodised. ‘The hardest track to do it and up against the hometown hero.’ That was a reference to Charles Leclerc, who starts second for Ferrari, with Norris’s McLaren team-mate Oscar Piastri next fastest.
In years past, starting up front was as close to a guarantee of a race victory as there was on the calendar. Only 10 times since 1950 has a Monaco winner emerged from further back than third on the grid.
But Sunday’s showpiece race may not prove such a formality. A second pit stop has been mandated, a unique rule for Monaco this year, so nobody knows quite what strategy twists lie in store.
Asked what percentage of the job was completed, Norris declined to put a number on it, his mind still buzzing from his first pole since the opening race in Melbourne two months ago.
Lando Norris snatched pole position away from Charles Leclerc for the Monaco Grand Prix
Norris set a track-record time to deny Leclerc at his home race and reignite his title fight
Leclerc qualified second while championship leader Oscar Piastri is third on the grid
‘It’s been a long time coming,’ he said. ‘I don’t think you realise how good this feels after quite a few struggles.’
He has suffered as Piastri has excelled to seize the championship lead and Max Verstappen has inserted himself as a persistent threat for Red Bull. Not so much on Saturday, however, with the Dutchman only fifth quickest, a place behind Ferrari’s Lewis Hamilton before the stewards stepped in.
They demoted him three places for holding up Verstappen in Q1, the impeded driver offloading a screed of bleeped-out expletives over the radio.
The champions with 11 world titles between them made up afterwards, Hamilton explaining his position. He had been told wrongly that Verstappen was on a slow lap, so he did not clear the racing line. So, another fine mess Ferrari had got themselves into.
But back to Norris. You sensed all weekend that he was in a newly relaxed and positive mood. He carried that demeanour on Thursday in his press briefing with British newspapers, an air he backed up by his performance throughout qualifying.
He was fastest in Q2 and with his final flying lap in Q3 eclipsed Leclerc, last year’s winner, by nearly a tenth of a second.
Norris was calm on the radio – another indication of his new-found serenity. His boss Zak Brown, in contrast, punched the air and charged to greet Norris after he climbed out of the cockpit. Norris’s father Adam wore an animated face with a ‘We’ve done it’ kind of expression, while his mother Cisca was in tears.
That is a bit of the Monaco magic gripping them. It is also reaction to how shaken Norris and his nearest and dearest were by a dip in confidence deeper than his 13-point deficit to Piastri might suggest.
Lewis Hamilton was fourth fastest before being hit with a three-place grid penalty by stewards
Mercedes’ Kimi Antonelli crashed in Q1 and qualified down in 15th ahead of the showpiece
Norris will look to close the gap on McLaren team-mate Piastri around the unforgiving circuit
‘I never doubted what I could do,’ said Norris. ‘But I have been frustrated, and I was unhappy. That’s normal if you are not winning.’
He banned himself from reading social media reaction a few weeks ago, not wanting his detractors to get into his head – a tactic he has kept up.
Nice job, Lando, but please stop analysing it.
There is a small difference between acknowledging areas of vulnerability and dealing with them, and, on the other hand, becoming preoccupied by them. And you feel victory on Sunday is needed to plant his mind more firmly on the right side of that divide, for a little longer anyway, after so much public self-flagellation.
As for the other Brits, a mixed day for Hamilton in the end – his original fourth fastest was OK, his best qualifying result of the year prior to his demotion. However, he was consistently three-tenths back from Leclerc.
Earlier, in final practice, Hamilton had crashed as he decelerated from 175mph at Massenet after finding slow-moving cars suddenly in front of him. His Ferrari scraped along the barrier, his front right tyre coming off and his rear caked in red advertising tape.
George Russell’s Mercedes conked out with a suspected electrical fault in Q2, leaving him stranded in the tunnel before marshals pushed him back into daylight. He will start 14th, a place ahead of team-mate Kimi Antonelli, who trickled into the wall in Q1.
Ollie Bearman, of Haas, qualified 17th but will start last after failing to react to a red flag on Friday.
