McLaren’s Lando Norris navigated his way though the streets of Monte Carlo on Sunday to win the Monaco GP for the first time in his F1 career – but the Briton believes his qualifying performance on Saturday was more meaningful for him personally, given his struggles with qualifying in the 2025 season.
Norris has generally failed to deliver the kind of stunning qualifying performances he showed in 2024, as he struggled with finding the last few hundredths of a second on the limit of grip in his 2025 McLaren.
But the Monaco GP could prove to be a turning point for the McLaren F1 driver, as he managed to secure pole position in the toughest qualifying of the season, which set him up for his maiden win in the principality on Sunday.
Pole position left him “more proud” despite “dream” win on Sunday
Although he recognized the importance and the meaning of winning the Monaco GP for the first time, Norris emphasized how his Saturday performance left him “more proud” than winning on Sunday, given the struggles he’s had in qualifying recently:
“There’s many things that I think everyone dreams of, but it’s getting to Formula One, it’s winning a race in Formula One, and it’s winning a race in Monaco, and we achieved it today,” he said. “So, yeah, proud of the whole team, of myself, and yeah, big accomplishment for all of us.
“The team haven’t won [in Monaco] since 2008, so not just a good one for me, but a good one for McLaren too.
“I think yesterday gave me confidence. Today, nothing new, in the sense of I’ve had confidence in every Sunday we’ve had this year.
“I’ve not needed the confidence on Sundays, but yesterday was a bigger day for me. I was more proud of yesterday than I almost was of today, in fact.
“Not just because of a pole in Monaco kind of sets up a win,” he explained. “But the accomplishment of doing it, no matter what the track would have been, was something I’m more proud about.
“So, yeah, a good weekend for me, not just in terms of result, but personally to kind of give myself that momentum, that boost, definitely makes me feel better going into Barcelona next week.”
“Tense” moments behind Verstappen, but no dramas
Now a six-time F1 grand prix winner, Norris didn’t have the traditional clear run to the win that a Monaco GP pole usually provides, as a new-for-2025 mandated two-stop strategy mixed things up at the front and especially in the midfield.
Max Verstappen delayed his second stop until the penultimate lap, as the four-time champion waited for a red flag to help his cause and jump ahead of the McLarens and Charles Leclerc. His heavily worn hard tyres meant he held up the leaders for the final stages of the race.
When asked about it, Norris said there were no “dramas” around that time – but admitted it made for some “tense” moments as he tried to fend off the attacks from home hero Leclerc:
“No dramas,” he said. “I think just, you know, there’s definitely some more tense moments in the race when I needed to push, and Charles [Leclerc] was never that far behind, especially at the end with Max [Verstappen] ahead.
“There were some more tense moments in trying to not get too close to Max, otherwise that’s when Charles had opportunities.
“But, I think we managed it well with the strategy. It’s always hard to know what we could have done better. I’m sure we can review things and look back on it, but, yeah, in the end of the day, the result was the perfect one.
“[It was] tricky at times, with the amount of cars, there was big bunches of cars, so getting through them without making mistakes, without just any silly things happening, was always probably the most nerve wracking bit.
“Otherwise, I felt good. I felt good with the tyres, with the management of tyres and stints and all of those things, so I was happy.”
“No point” worrying of losing the win through a red flag
With Verstappen staying out for so long, it became clear that Red Bull’s goal was to be there to take advantage if a late red flag came out, as the Dutchman would be able to change his tyres and still keep his lead, on a circuit that is notoriously difficult to overtake.
Norris explained that although he was “praying” that a red flag wouldn’t come out late on in the Monaco GP, he didn’t put much thought into it as there was nothing he could do in that scenario:
“Yeah, what can I do [if that happened]? Nothing.
“That’s out of my control. No point thinking about it. If it happened, it happened. He wins Monaco, well done,” he said. “[But] no, I was happy. I’m just focusing on my own race. Of course, praying that it didn’t happen.
“But I didn’t think of the rest.”
Mandatory two-stop made the race “a lot more scary”
The McLaren driver believes the new mandatory two-stop for Monaco made his race “scary” at times, but refused to elaborate on whether that’s the right approach to take for the following years around Monaco, as it’s not up to the drivers to decide if the change worked or not.
“I hated it,” he jokingly said about the new rule. “Because it’s made it a lot more scary for me.
“I don’t know. I mean,I wish it was a one-stop, it would have been a lot more chilled. [But] it’s not for me, right? The rules are not made for me, they’re not made for us to enjoy it more, or whatever.
“They’re made for the fans. They’re made to provide more entertainment for the viewers. I don’t know if that was the case.”
After the Monaco GP, Norris sits in second in the drivers’ championship, trailing McLaren F1 team-mate Oscar Piastri by just three points after eight rounds.
