For Verstappen, the 'most favorable' McLaren driver takes pole: Here's why

Lando Norris has had few good qualifying sessions in 2025. It was mostly messy and above all slower than his teammate Oscar Piastri. In recent weeks, Norris became increasingly critical of himself and Piastri pulled further ahead in the championship with three consecutive wins.

But in the weekend where qualifying is most important, Norris rediscovered his qualifying pace with an impressive pole in Monaco. For the Brit, it was a breakthrough, having struggled all season with the MCL39 over a single fast lap.

In contrast, Oscar Piastri's weekend performance was so far a disappointment. Over the whole race weekend, the championship leader hit the wall multiple times. ‘’I've hit the wall more times this weekend than in my entire career,’’ the McLaren driver stated after qualifying. With Charles Leclerc splitting the two McLarens, Sunday will be tough for Piastri. Overtaking in Monaco will be difficult even with two stops.

Where Piastri in another team might benefit from a better strategy, McLaren rarely splits the strategy. It almost always opts for the strategy that is fastest on paper, preventing the second driver from accidentally finishing ahead of the first driver. In short: Piastri will normally finish behind Norris in the Grand Prix.

This equal treatment ensures peace within the team but also has the downside that the drivers take points from each other in 'their' drivers' championship. If McLaren has the fastest car, sometimes Norris wins and sometimes Piastri. Neither of the two manages to create a big gap with the actual competitor in that championship.

Because that is Max Verstappen. Of course, the Dutchman was not satisfied with P5 after qualifying (which became P4 after a penalty for Lewis Hamilton) and a gap of seven tenths. Yet, he lost only one place to the best McLaren driver in the championship.

Of course, everything must improve at Red Bull Racing to win the world title with Verstappen. On high-speed circuits, Verstappen is the favorite. On all other circuits, he is not. Where he can still compete on medium-speed circuits, the scenario on low-speed tracks like Monaco, much like in 2024, was quite painful.

However, with a P4, all is not lost. Due to the two mandatory pit stops, there are more strategic options to move forward. Moreover, Verstappen rightly stated: ‘’It's only one race on the calendar where you need to score points. Even in the years when I became champion, I only won here twice.’’