The 2024 Monaco qualifiers have had an unexpected turn of events, to say the least. Charles Leclerc made his principality extremely happy by clocking in the fastest time around the circuit. Right behind him was Oscar Piastri who had been uber-quick all season. The top 3 was completed by Carlos Sainz in another Ferrari and he was followed by the McLaren of Lando Norris. While Charles Leclerc qualifying on pole is no new occurrence, Max Verstappen at P6 and Sergio Perez out in Q1, is something no one could have foreseen.

Oscar Piastri was quick through the free practice sessions of the weekend with a hiccup only in FP2 finishing the 12 fastest. But when it came to his time in FP1, he came in second. Formula 1’s official Instagram page posted the results where there was an error in Piastri’s name. The banner that announced the top 3 drivers in FP1, at P3, carried the name “Oscar Piastri Leclerc” although the Ferrari was not in the top 3. This led to some interesting reactions after the qualifying from Leclerc’s brother.

Arthur Leclerc’s take on Oscar Piastri starting in the front row

It’s the Monaco GP and it’s obvious that the Leclerc family would come to watch Charles race their home track. So when the Ferrari driver scored pole position for the Grand Prix, his brother was extremely happy. But it was not only Charles Leclerc that Arthur had a reason to be happy for. It was also for Oscar Piastri “Leclerc”. The Leclerc name comes from the FP1 banner, which led to a funny interaction between the Ferrari driver and the McLaren P2 on Twitter.

After Oscar Piastri was called a “Leclerc”, the Ferrari driver took to the X post and jokingly stated, “I can adopt you if needed.” Charles Leclerc has been plagued by misfortune on race day at Monaco for the past few years.  Now if the adoption goes through, it will make Piastri, Arthur’s nephew, making him a part of the family curse. Playing on that joke, F1 presenter, Laura Winter told Arthur, “Not just one but 2 ‘Leclercs’ on the front row, your nephew also made it there,” before asking him how it made him feel.

With a big smile on his face the Ferrari driver’s brother replied, “Yeah, it’s a Ferrari, [sorry] family 1-2. really happy for my nephew and for my brother too.” With this, even the Monegasque driver’s brother accepted Piastri into the family. But jokes aside, everyone hopes that the Leclerc curse is broken by this 1-2. This is an interesting outcome from the qualifiers on a track that is so difficult to overtake on. The starting order is an alternate Ferrari-McLaren grid and Max Verstappen will be starting P6.

So let’s take a look at what went down in the qualifiers.

Monaco 2024 Qualifier Results

Now let’s talk about the unexpected turn of events during the qualifiers. Starting with the drivers that were eliminated in the first round. While names like Zhou Guanyu and Valtteri Bottas have been eliminated in Q1 at a few races this season, Sergio Perez faced his first elimination during the first stage of qualifiers. Logan Stargent will be starting at P17 and the last driver to get knocked out in Q1 was shockingly Fernando Alonso.

The Q2 elimination saw some names that it had seen before with Kevin Magnussen at P15, Lance Stroll on P14, and Daniel Ricciardo starting at P13 on the grid. All the drivers in this bracket, finished in sub 1 minute 11 seconds. The other Haas car will be starting at P12 with Nico Hulkenberg and Estaban Ocon being P11. Although these drivers were eliminated in Q2, the gaps were extremely small with everyone within five-tenths of a second of each other.

The top 10 was where the real action was with Pierre Gasly qualifying his season best at P10 and Alex Albon at P9. Yuki Tsunoda is looking very confident in the Racing Bull as he will be starting at P8 right behind the 7-time world champion Lewis Hamilton. The biggest surprise from qualifying has to be Max Verstappen down in P6. This marks his worst starting position of the season and the first time he’s been denied pole position this year.

Mercedes has looked promising all weekend and George Russell will be P5 on the starting grid. Lando Norris will be starting P4, which is not that bad considering that’s his racing number. So he ought to not absolutely dislike it. We have already discussed the top 3 with Charles Leclerc leading Piastri and Sainz, and the upcoming race looks as exciting as ever. That being said, do you think Charles Leclerc will be able to get his first home race win this year? Let us know your thoughts in the comments below.