The 2024 Monaco GP qualifying delivered on its hype with an absolutely unpredictable grid amid Red Bull’s struggles. Ferrari and Charles Leclerc took the most advantage of the same to take pole position and break Max Verstappen’s qualifying dominance this year. However, alongside the Monegasque is his newly ‘adopted’ son – Oscar Piastri, who qualified in P2. Apparently, the #16 driver’s brother Arthur Leclerc celebrated this result, deeming it as a ‘Family Front Row’.
Piastri has been up to this funny charade of wanting to have some Monegasque roots in his blood. The Australian driver did the same for previous races this year to have more home races. Seeing his quest to call the Monaco GP one of his home races, Charles Leclerc offered to adopt Piastri as his son!
This joke has carried on with F1, Oscar’s mom – Nicole Piastri, and several others joining the banter. Formula 1 posted a graphic on Friday to cite the McLaren driver’s name as “Oscar Piastri – Leclerc”. The two drivers have also reacted to the same and now Arthur Leclerc has joined the banter.
Arthur posted on his Instagram story, “Family Front Row” with a heart emoji and tagged Piastri and Leclerc‘s handles. The former posted a time of 1:10:424, relative to the Ferrari’s driver’s pole time of 1:10:270.
“family front row” ARTHUR pic.twitter.com/iO5L50H4mo
— clara (@leclercsletters) May 25, 2024
While the McLaren driver was a tenth and a half shy of taking his maiden pole position in the Grand Prix format, as per their banter this weekend, it is a ‘Leclerc front-row lockout’. So, that may bring a smile to Piastri’s face.
Nonetheless, the duo have put themselves in prime position to fight for the Monaco GP win, especially with Leclerc looking to break his home race curse.
Charles Leclerc inches closer to home race glory
Charles Leclerc has faced wretched luck at the Monaco GP with a best result of P4 in 2022. The Monegasque driver would want to get that monkey off his back after securing pole this weekend.
The Ferrari driver has been incredibly quick throughout all practice sessions so far and showed his prowess when it mattered in Q3. With Verstappen struggling and starting sixth on Sunday, Leclerc would fancy his chances to get his first race win since Austria 2022.
The home hero delivers! @Charles_Leclerc was a man on a mission in qualifying #F1 #MonacoGP pic.twitter.com/rMyRbqtJ5D
— Formula 1 (@F1) May 25, 2024
However, McLaren’s progress in the past two races would make Ferrari wary of not making any mistakes. The 2022 race saw them fumble their strategy execution under changeable conditions and Leclerc ended up finishing outside the top 3, despite starting on pole.
So, if the Italian team want Leclerc to break his home race curse, their tire strategy and pitstops in the race need to be perfect. Meanwhile, McLaren would be looking to keep the #16 driver under pressure, as even Piastri would want to take his maiden Grand Prix win.
