Italy’s Gabriele Mini (Prema Racing), last year’s winner in the Principality, will once again start from pole position to attempt the double at 8am on Sunday, in the main race of the FIA Formula 3 Championship, at the 81^st Formula 1 Grand Prix of Monaco.

Mini, a member of the Alpine Drivers Academy, was already fastest in free practice on Thursday, but he had to wait until the very end of this session, in bright sunshine, to snatch pole position from Great Britain’s Luke Browning (HiTech): with a time of 1:23.942, Mini was the only driver to go under the one minute and 24 seconds mark on his last attempt, at an average speed of 143 km/h on the streets of the Principality.

Browning finished two tenths of a second behind Mini and he was just 65 thousandths ahead of another Italian, Leonardo Fornaroli (Trident), who leads the Championship after six races. The places of honour were taken by Spaniard Mari Boya (Campos Racing) in 4^th place, and Mexican Noel Leon (Van Amersfoort Racing) in 5^th. They will all start from the same side of the grid on Sunday morning, assigned to this qualifying Group A.

In the other group (B), the best time was set by Australian Christian Mansell, who has no known relation to Nigel, the Williams world champion. But as there is a one-second gap between Mini’s time and Mansell’s (1:24.921), the Italian driver will be on pole position on Sunday morning.

For Saturday’s Sprint race, the grid will be reversed for the top twelve drivers at the end of qualifications, both groups mixed. And young Frenchman Sami Meguetounif (Trident) will have a lot of work, starting in the middle of the grid for both races of the weekend. The winner at Imola last Sunday, he missed his qualifying session and even hit the rail at Sainte-Dévote, ending with 7^th fastest time of Group B, the slowest of the two.

Sprint Race Provisional Starting Grid

Monegasque Charles Leclerc has yet to stand on the princely podium at the Monaco Grand Prix since making his F1 debut in 2018, but that’s not his aim this year: “Finishing second or third doesn’t interest me, it doesn’t really excite me. I’m aiming for victory, nothing else, and I think that with the progress Ferrari has made this year, I can achieve that. There’s less of a gap between Red Bull, McLaren and Ferrari. Everything will depend on qualifying on Saturday, because if I’m on pole position on Sunday, I know I’ll have a good chance of winning the race”, said the local hero on Thursday at the FIA press conference.

As he does every year, the relaxed Leclerc spoke of everything that makes Monaco an “extra-special” event, because he was born in the Principality, because he lives here and because he knows every inch of Circuit de Monaco. “We have a better car, Imola showed that, we’re moving in the right direction”, the Ferrari driver also emphasised. He also spoke of the notion of risk, and explained that in Monaco everything depends on risk assessment

« I think what you have in Monaco that you have maybe a little bit less on other tracks, on other city tracks as well, is just a risk assessment. And that’s where a driver can make a bit more the difference by taking more risk. It either pays off or not at all. But this is something that I particularly appreciate from this track. As soon as you try and go a bit more on the limit, you straight away see it on the lap time. And obviously coming into Q3, having done so many laps, you start to get pretty close with the walls. But it’s exciting. I don’t get that feeling anywhere else on the calendar. So I think risk assessment is what makes the difference here in Monaco ».

On the subject of risk, Max Verstappen, the three-time reigning world champion and two-time winner in the Principality (2021, 2023), added a very specific comment for the young drivers: “You have to make mistakes to progress. It’s important to make them because even though you tell yourself all the time I cannot do this or I cannot do that, you will only adapt really if you make them and then move forward”. During this very relaxed conference, the leader of Red Bull Racing, but also of the younger generation, was listened to very attentively by the other participants, George Russell (Mercedes), Alex Albon (Williams), Yuki Tsunoda (RB) and Esteban Ocon (Alpine).

To add a little more excitement for the fans, on the eve of the first two free practice sessions on Friday afternoon, Russell indicated that his Mercedes was also making “progress”, and that all the work carried out over the last few weeks, and the recent developments, had made it “more consistent over a lap, better balanced between slow and fast corners”. This gives cause for hope on the Monaco circuit, which generally limits the differences in pure performance and compensates for them with more aggressive driving, close to the safety rails.

All the drivers present agreed on one point: Saturday will be crucial, and anything is possible in qualifying. Just like last year, when Esteban Ocon put in a fantastic lap in his Alpine to secure 3rd place on the grid, just behind Verstappen. He then turned that into a fine 3rd place on the princely podium, his only podium in 2023 (two for Alpine with Pierre Gasly in Zandvoort). That’s what Monaco is all about.

British driver Harry King failed to win last year’s Porsche Supercup (3^rd overall) due to two retirements, despite being the most successful driver in 2023 in motorsport’s most prestigious single-make series. He is still driving for Lechner Racing, by far the best team in the category, and he will be doing his utmost to dominate this season. But it’s going to be long and hard, against some very strong rivals…

King set the fastest time in free practice on Thursday in Monaco, but he will have to watch out all weekend, in particular, for two Dutch drivers: Jaap van Lagen, entered by the Italians of Dinamic Motorsport, and above all Larry ten Voorde, the double Porsche Supercup champion (2020 and 2021), who won last Sunday in Imola… ahead of Harry King.

Ten Voorde left Lechner Racing this winter to become the leader of the French Schumacher CLRT structure. He remains a prime rival for King, once again this weekend in Monaco. The top three in this free practice session, King, van Lagen and ten Voorde, are all within just three-tenths of a second of each other. This promises an eventful qualifying session on Friday, from 6.45pm, which will round off a day of battles on all levels. The ultimate rewards will be the best places on the starting grids.

The interesting thing about this 2^nd round of the Porsche Supercup, of the eight scheduled this season as curtain raisers to the European Formula 1 Grands Prix, is that in 2024 there is a whole new generation of drivers, as young as they are talented, determined to shake up the established order of recent years, like the last two champions of the discipline, aged 20 and 25.

During Thursday’s session, the ‘rookies’ also made their presence felt. There were four of them in the Top 9, including Frenchman Victor Bernier (8^th), entered by another French team, Martinet by Alméras. So just one piece of advice: if you’ve got grandstand seats, stay until the end of the day on Friday to watch the Porsche Supercup qualifying session. You won’t be disappointed…

Practice Session Classification

The two French drivers competing in Formula 2 at the 81^st Formula 1 Grand Prix de Monaco, Victor Martins (ART Grand Prix) and Isack Hadjar (Campos Racing), shone in Thursday’s free practice session, which was run on rain tyres on the Circuit de Monaco’s sodden track in very poor visibility conditions.

The wet session, which got underway shortly after 3pm, saw Martins set his fastest lap of 1:39.237. A good start for a potential renaissance, after suffering a very tough start of the season, scoring 9 points only in 8 races.

This very decent time put Martins at the top of the time sheet, 6 tenths of a second ahead of Norway’s Dennis Hauger (MP Motorsport). Dutchman Richard Verschoor (Trident) had to make do with third place, half a second ahead of Hadjar, when the track was still in decent condition.

After eight races in 2024, the provisional leader of the FIA Formula 2 Championship is Zane Maloney (Rodin Motorsport), a native of Barbados who dreams of a future like that of Lewis Hamilton, the 7-time world champion who also hails from the West Indies. As for 17-year-old Italian prodigy Andrea ‘Kimi’ Antonelli, backed by Mercedes, he managed to finish 8^th in this wet session, for his debut at Monaco.

Maloney leads the provisional overall standings ahead of Estonian Paul Aron (HiTech), 9^th in this session, and Hadjar, the real man in form at the moment: the young Frenchman has just collected 50 points in the last two Feature Races, on Sunday morning in Melbourne and Imola.

Qualifying gets underway on Friday at 3.10pm, in two groups of 11 drivers. Anything is possible for pole position.

Practice session classification

Photo © Formula 2

Italy’s Gabriele Mini (Prema Racing) set the fastest time in the one and only free practice session for Formula 3 at the 81^st Formula 1 Grand Prix de Monaco, just 91 thousandths clear of his compatriot Leonardo Fornaroli (Trident).

The session began on slick tyres, on a dry track, and ended 45 minutes later on rain tyres, in order to start preparing for the rest of the Monaco weekend where, as usual, there will be lots of surprises, not just in terms of the weather.

Several drivers made mistakes, but without too much damage, and each time the marshals of Automobile Club de Monaco (ACM) did their job perfectly, clearing the track in record time. Mini, who won last year’s Feature Race in Monaco from pole position, made it clear that he intends to remain the boss in the Principality, even though he changed team this winter. He set a time of 1:27.400 and completed a total of 19 laps, as did Fornaroli and another favourite this weekend, Sweden’s Dino Beganovic, his team-mate at Prema.

Meguetounif in 4^th place!

Behind this infernal trio, grouped together in just over one second, a young Frenchman, rookie Sami Meguetounif (Trident), the winner last Sunday at Imola of his first F3 race, posted the 4^th fastest time in this session, but two seconds behind Mini. And he also provoked one of the three red flags of this very intense free practice session.

The Top 6 was completed by a Briton with a French name, Callum Voisin (Rodin Motorsport), ahead of an Australian with a famous name, Christian Mansell (ART GP), but who is not related to Nigel, the British world champion. For the record, Sebastian Montoya (Campos), son of the famous Juan Pablo, had to make do with 13^th place, ahead of the only female driver entered, Sophia Floersch (21^st), who races for Van Amersfoort Racing.

After six races in Bahrain, Australia and Imola, Fornaroli leads the provisional FIA Formula 3 Championship standings, ahead of Luke Browning (Hi-Tech), Beganovic and Mini. Qualifications are scheduled for Friday, from 11.05am, for two groups of 15 drivers.

Practice session classification

As is the case every year around the time of the Cannes Film Festival, a host of stars arrived in the Principality for the 81st Formula 1 Grand Prix de Monaco. And the line-up is very attractive, with a trio of stars entered by three ‘top teams’: Max Verstappen of course, the three-time reigning world champion and still dominant in his Red Bull RB20, Charles Leclerc, the local hero, in his Ferrari, and a new kid on the block, Lando Norris, whose McLaren is improving at every Grand Prix.

In Miami, England’s Norris has joined a very select circle of 114 drivers having won a Formula 1 Grand Prix, out of the thousand or so who have taken part in at least one race since 1950. And even if his record is still slim (1 win, 1 pole position, 6 fastest laps, 17 podium finishes), at the age of 24, he is a driver on the rise. Need another proof? Since the start of 2024 which, like the previous two seasons, has been dominated by Red Bull (5 wins in 7 races), Norris has finished on the podium four times. And last Sunday at Imola, he threatened ‘Max the Menace’ right to the end, finishing just 7 tenths behind the insatiable Dutchman.

He was also on the podium at Imola, in front of thousands of delighted tifosi: Charles Leclerc, back to his best and still in the hunt for a prestigious win in Monaco. A win that has always eluded him since 2018, when he made his F1 debut in a Ferrari-powered Sauber. Twice, in 2021 and 2022, Charles started from pole position, with all eyes on the Sainte-Dévote bend, but never yet has the Monegasque driver managed to stand on the most coveted podium of the F1 season, in the box of H.S.H. Prince Albert II of Monaco.

So, of course, Max Verstappen is the great favourite for this 81st Formula 1 Grand Prix de Monaco, but he too had to wait a long time before winning in the streets of the Principality, in 2021, in his sixth F1 season. He did it again in 2023 and still has the ultimate weapon on track, but his rivals are getting organised, making progress and doing everything in their power, at every Grand Prix, to try and beat him, in qualifying and in the race. This has already happened twice this year, thanks to Carlos Sainz (victory in Australia) and Lando Norris (victory in Miami). It will be the case again this weekend at Circuit de Monaco, where the slightest mistake is paid for in cash.

Sainz, Piastri and Pérez, the outsiders

Even the Red Bull Racing team is not immune to error, bad strategy, bad timing or bad luck following a racing incident. This gives a little hope to Carlos Sainz in the other Ferrari, Oscar Piastri in the other McLaren and even Sergio Perez in the other Red Bull. The Mexican loves Monaco too, and he has already won in the Principality, in 2022. It was one of ‘Checo’s’ six F1 victories, for a very experienced driver who has already taken 264 Grand Prix starts since 2011.

As this is the Monaco Grand Prix, and the 30th anniversary of Ayrton Senna’s tragic death at Imola, there will be plenty of talk all weekend about the Brazilian champion, who holds the all-time record for wins (6) in Monaco. There will be a special livery for the McLarens of Norris and Piastri, unveiled on Wednesday evening in a small gathering at the brand’s distributor in Monaco. It will be visible on Friday, on the track and in the homes of millions of fans around the world, for the first free practice session of this 81stFormula 1 Grand Prix de Monaco.

F2, F3 and Porsche Supercup open on Thursday!

The drivers entered for the support races will get the ball rolling on Thursday afternoon, while the F1 drivers complete their Media Day ritual.

During three free practice sessions, essential for fine-tuning cars before Friday’s qualifying, the winners of last weekend’s races in Imola will be in action again: Frenchmen Isack Hadjar, currently third in the FIA Formula 2 Championship, and Sami Meguetounif, who has just won for the first time in Formula 3; German Oliver Goethe, who won the F3 Sprint race on Saturday, and Italian Franco Colapinto, who won the F2 Sprint; Dutchman Larry ten Voorde, a two-time Porsche Supercup champion, who also won at Imola.

Everything is set for a super show all weekend in the streets of the Principality… and on all your screens!

GRANDS PRIX 2024 TICKET OPENING

The Official Ticketing dates for the 81st Formula 1 Grand Prix de Monaco (23-26 May 2024) and the 14th Grand Prix de Monaco Historique (10-12 May 2024) are now official.

The Ticket Office will open its doors on Monday November 6th exclusively for ACM Members for a period of 15 days. The General Public will have access to the various offers from Tuesday November 21st.

On this occasion, the Official Ticketing Service of the Automobile Club de Monaco will launch its new, innovative and intuitive website www.monaco-grandprix.com, featuring 3D graphics to help you make your selections.

You will find all the useful informations to make your purchases directly on the website or at the Official Ticket Office.

Official Ticketing Opening hours:
Monday to Friday 09:00 – 17:00
44 rue Grimaldi – Monaco
00 377 93 15 26 24

The 81st Formula 1 Grand Prix de Monaco will be held from Thursday 23 to Sunday 26 May 2024.

There will be plenty of excitement in the Principality as the 8th round of the 2024 Formula 1 World Championship gets underway over the 4 days. The F1 single-seaters won’t be the only ones livening up proceedings on the streets of this legendary track, as the associated series (F2 / F3 / Porsche Mobil 1 Supercup) will also be taking part.

Only a few weeks to go before tickets go on sale. Register now to keep up to date with the latest news and the opening of the Official Ticket Office.

For all information, our staff will be delighted to advise you

• [email protected]
• 00 377 93 15 26 24

It hasn’t gone unnoticed! Esteban Ocon finished 3rd on Sunday at the 80th Formula 1 Grand Prix de Monaco: a historic podium in the tradition of the key stories in French motorsport in the Principality.

The French tradition is honoured! Since it was first held in 1929, the Monegasque circuit has regularly been the scene of outstanding performances by French drivers and teams. 7 French drivers have won here (René Dreyfus, Guy Moll, Maurice Trintignant, Jean-Pierre Beltoise, Patrick Depailler, Alain Prost and of course Olivier Panis). Although Esteban Ocon has yet to add his name to the legendary list of winners at this event, his performance on Sunday is certainly worthy of note.

Ocon took over from Olivier Panis, surprise winner in 1996 in a Ligier.

As when Olivier won in 1996, Ocon achieved this feat at the wheel of a French car. Especially as the Panis Ligier was powered by a Japanese Mugen-Honda engine. As for the three podium finishes achieved by Renault F1 in Monaco since 1996, it was always with a foreign driver at the wheel: Jarno Trulli (victory in 2004), Fernando Alonso (victory in 2006) and Robert Kubica (3rd in 2010).

“It’s been a long time. I’m speechless. On Thursday, I would have been happy to get into the Top 10, but here we are on the podium. With Alpine, we never stop believing and this weekend I felt strong in the car, confident, I could really get close to the limit, more than ever before in Monaco,” said Esteban in the press conference. He was on cloud nine, he could hardly believe it, and this was only normal.

“My qualifying lap was 90% of the job”

This Monaco Grand Prix, only the 5^th in his F1 career, enabled Ocon to produce a perfect copy from start to finish: 8^th, then 10^th and 9^th in Free Practice, he then put in a tremendous qualifying lap to take provisional pole at the end of Q3, and then the 3^rd place on the grid thanks to Charles Leclerc’s penalty. And he didn’t let up in the race, behind the two untouchables, Max Verstappen and Fernando Alonso, two double World Champions, now also tied as double winners in the Principality.

“My qualifying lap was 90% of the job, and today in the race it was a bit tougher. The rear of my car was damaged when Carlos crashed into me at the harbour chicane, then the rain shuffled everything and, in the end, I was under pressure from Lewis (Hamilton), as is often the case in these conditions. He was quicker than me on the wet section, from Turn 5 to Turn 8, and I was quicker on the dry section”, added the man from Normandy, author of a top-of-the-range performance in ultra-tough conditions, at the wheel of a highly efficient Alpine.

The first podium of many?

“It’s a huge reward, and a change from my previous weekends in Monaco. I’m very surprised, but I have to keep my feet on the ground. I want to thank the Alpine teams at Viry and Enstone. I don’t know if this is a turning point in our season, but I hope it’s the first podium of many. We’ll know more about our car’s potential next week in Barcelona, on a slightly more traditional circuit. We keep on pushing. And respect for Aston Martin, because they’re showing us that it’s possible to go from mid-table team to top team…”.

As with Ferrari, one of the two Alpine drivers was the victim of a failed strategy, stopping too early to change tires, and having to stop just afterwards to take the intermediate tires, because of the rain shower. It was Pierre Gasly, who ended up 7^th when he could have been aiming for 4^th or 5^th place, behind Ocon. Exactly the same mistake made by Ferrari for Carlos Sainz, who started 4^th and finished 8^th. A small detail with huge consequences. Fortunately for Ocon, there was no extra stop with a wrong timing, and his memorable performance with a well-deserved podium finish in the princely box. An historic result, for real.