After a thrilling qualifying session, it’s time for the Monaco GP race. Although usually criticized for lacking excitement and overtaking, this year’s race promises to be an interesting one with a variety of events on offer.
PlanetF1.com has predicted the top 10 positions for the 2024 Monaco Grand Prix and we encourage readers to make their own predictions for Sunday’s race.
Charles Leclerc ends the Monaco curse
10. Alex Albon
With Albon now the flag-bearer for Williams, it’s the perfect time for Williams to score their first points at the Monaco Grand Prix. The British-Thai driver guided the FW46 to an incredible ninth place in qualifying, less than a tenth of a second slower than Yuki Tsunoda’s eighth-place time.
Yet, at a circuit where the Enstone-based team has performed well, Williams’ race pace is still worse than Alpine’s.
Furthermore, Esteban Ocon will start from 11th place, meaning Alpine could launch a double attack on Albon by undercutting or overcutting him if they are unable to overtake him on track during the first stint.
9. Pierre Gasly/Esteban Ocon
If Albon blocks the track and Alpine’s pace increases, Alpine can overcut Gasly and overtake Williams, assuming it is Gasly and not Esteban Ocon who is on track in front before the pit stop window.
Having two cars behind the target position gives Alpine enough advantage to play strategically against Williams. In this scenario, the Grove team will have to keep their position smart and push to cover attacks from behind if necessary.
8. Yuki Tsunoda
The Japanese driver has continued to surprise once again this season, qualifying in eighth place.
With Albon and the Alpines behind him at the start, and Lewis Hamilton and Max Verstappen ahead of him, eighth place seems the best he can hope for – and barring any surprises, that’s what he should aim for.
7. Lewis Hamilton
Hamilton was ahead of his teammate throughout Friday and Saturday morning, but was beaten by George Russell in Q1, Q2 and Q3 of qualifying.
The seven-time world champion just didn’t have enough momentum to qualify in the top five ahead of Russell and Verstappen, a golden opportunity to achieve his best qualifying result so far this season.
His aim tomorrow will be to be mindful of attacks from the rear rather than trying to bother Verstappen, something Mercedes has been thinking about lately after the recent events at Imola, as they have more to lose than gain as a team.
6. George Russell
It’s hard to imagine Russell being able to hang on for 78 laps behind Max Verstappen as he tries to minimise the damage.
Admittedly, Red Bull hasn’t been as fast in Monaco this weekend and Mercedes hasn’t performed as badly as they have in other races, but the advantage is clear and with Max at the wheel, all we can expect from him is to make it easy for George.
Other key talking points for the 2024 Monaco Grand Prix
👉 Haas disqualified from Monaco GP qualifying for ‘careless’ infringement
👉 Lewis Hamilton blames George Russell’s front wing upgrade for his latest qualifying defeat
5. Max Verstappen
Fifth place seems too low for Max and Red Bull, but the truth is that compared with McLaren and Ferrari, the pace in Monaco just isn’t good enough for the Milton Keynes-based team.
Before he can catch them, he’ll also have to overtake George Russell’s Mercedes – and both the narrowing performance gap between the two this weekend and the difficulty of overtaking in Monte Carlo make it hard to imagine Max getting any further.
4. Lando Norris
Lando Norris’ position will depend a lot on his start, as the long runs on Friday showed that Ferrari has very good race pace and McLaren has a slightly lower top speed.
This isn’t particularly important in Monaco, but it’s good to have it if you want to minimise overtaking opportunities. Another option would be to use an undercut, but it would be difficult for McLaren to have a significant advantage over Ferrari to make this happen.
3. Carlos Sainz
The Spaniard will start from the inside of the grid, which should give him a slight advantage over Oscar Piastri into Turn 1.
But the Ferrari driver has already admitted that his aim in the race is to help Charles Leclerc win, and taking risks at the start would not be in his favour.
It would be different if Piastri had a poor start and they could secure a 1-2 from the get-go, but putting the Australian under pressure and allowing Leclerc to build up enough of a gap to get out of the undercut zone seems like the better plan.
2. Oscar Piastri
Second place in Monaco is by no means a bad result for Oscar Piastri – the Australian driver is yet to reach the podium in F1 so second place at one of the most iconic circuits on the calendar is a huge positive.
If the MCL38 has the pace to beat Ferrari, McLaren could use overcuts and undercuts to challenge for first place, but even so, degradation is not expected to be significant, so the difference in pace and the possibility of making a strategic move successful will be difficult.
1. Charles Leclerc
After dominating on Friday and Saturday despite not having the quickest car in qualifying, Charles Leclerc has everything to break the curse in Monaco.
The Ferrari drivers will start from pole position on a circuit where overtaking is extremely difficult in the SF24, which has a higher top speed and slightly better race performance than the MCL38 at this venue.
For Leclerc, who has endured various problems on the roads of his home country, this should finally be the weekend he has dreamed of for years – and maybe his first win since Austria in 2022.
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