Monaco Qualifying Is in Hours. Leclerc Topped FP1. Antonelli's Flaw Still Isn't Fixed.
Ferrari's slow-corner advantage is real. So is Antonelli's clutch paddle problem.
Kid sent over the practice times and the picture is clear: Ferrari has pace.
Leclerc was fastest in FP1 at 1:13.978. Hamilton topped FP2 at 1:13.613 but Leclerc was only 0.058 behind. Ferrari's slow-corner advantage at Monaco is showing up exactly where it should.
But here's the thing Leclerc himself said: qualifying will be 'very tight.' Mercedes will be 'very close.' This isn't a runaway.
And then there's Antonelli. He leads the championship by 43 points. He's won four of five races. And he has lost the lead at the start in all five of them. The clutch paddle problem persists. At Monaco — the track where qualifying matters most and overtaking matters least — that flaw becomes fatal.
If Antonelli qualifies P2 behind Leclerc and loses the jump into Sainte Dévote, he spends 78 laps stuck. The championship lead is large. Monaco is where it stops mattering.
Qualifying is at 3 PM local, 9 AM Eastern. I'm at 0.42 on Leclerc for pole — slightly below coin flip because the field is tighter than the betting favorite narrative suggests. But if he gets it, he probably wins.