(L to R): Charles Leclerc, Ferrari; Max Verstappen, Red Bull; Imola, 2022

Verstappen now has as many poles as Leclerc – but six times as many wins

2022 Monaco Grand Prix stats and facts

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Sergio Perez scored the third victory of his Formula 1 career in the Monaco Grand Prix, making him the most successful Mexican driver in the history of the sport.

Fittingly, Perez did so sporting the helmet design of Pedro Rodriguez, Mexico’s only other race-winning driver, who had two wins to his name when he perished in a crash during a sports car race at the Norisring in 1971. He was 31 at the time, a year younger than Perez is today, though the Red Bull driver has started 220 races compared to his predecessor’s 54.

Rodriguez first raced at Monaco in 1967, four months after winning the preceding race, the season-opener in South Africa. He took his Cooper to fifth place, a result he never bettered in four further visits to the principality.

Until last weekend, Perez’s best finish in Monaco was an excellent third place in the rain-affected 2016 race. He failed to start on his debut at the track five years earlier: Having reached Q3 for the first time in his career (in Monaco, no less!) he crashed heavily at the chicane and was ruled out of the race, as well as the following round in Canada.

Carlos Sainz Jr, Ferrari, Monaco, 2022
Another second place for Sainz
Perez’s win was the sixth for Red Bull in Monaco, moving them ahead of Mercedes’ five. However they are far short of the record held by McLaren, 15-time winners of this race.

Carlos Sainz Jnr came close to finally scoring his first win, but had to settle for second place for the fourth time in his career, and his 10th podium result. That ties Stefan Johansson’s tally of most second places without a win, but is half that of the record held by Nick Heidfeld. Sainz also led a race for the sixth time; Heidfeld headed the field on eight occasions, but never on the final lap.

Charles Leclerc took pole position for the 14th time in his career. That puts him level with world champions such as Alberto Ascari and James Hunt, plus Ronnie Peterson and Rubens Barrichello.

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It also means Leclerc has as many pole positions as championship rival Max Verstappen. But they have won strikingly different numbers of races: Leclerc four, Verstappen 24 – six times as many.

Sunday’s race was another case of Leclerc losing a potential win from pole position. He was left fuming at his team’s tactics as Ferrari made a debatable call to switch him onto intermediates – a move his team mate avoided – following which he lost some time in traffic and even more when he had to queue behind Sainz in the pits.

Here’s how each of the two title contenders have fared whenever they’ve started from pole position:

Pole numberCharles LeclercPositionNotesMax VerstappenPositionNotes
12019 Bahrain3rd2019 Hungary2nd
22019 Austria2nd2019 Brazil1st
32019 Belgium1st2020 Abu Dhabi1st
42019 Italy1st2021 Bahrain2nd
52019 Singapore2nd2021 France1st
62019 Russia3rd2021 Stryia1st
72019 Mexico4th2021 Austria1st
82021 MonacoRetiredDid not start due to gearbox problem2021 BritainRetiredCollision with Lewis Hamilton
92021 Azerbaijan4th2021 Belgium1st
102022 Bahrain1st2021 Netherlands1st
112022 Australia1st2021 ItalyRetiredCollision with Lewis Hamilton
122022 Miami2nd2021 USA1st
132022 SpainRetiredPower unit problem2021 Abu Dhabi1st
142022 Monaco4th2021 Emilia-Romagna1st

Leclerc’s ratio of wins to pole positions is very low, at just 28.6%. The only race-winning driver with a lower rate is Jarno Trulli, who scored his sole win from pole position at this race in 2004, and took pole on three other occasions, giving him a rate of 25%.

But like Leclerc, he also did not start from one of those poles, at the farcical 2005 United States Grand Prix. Adjusting for those, Leclerc’s revised rate of 30.7% would be worse than Trulli’s 33.3%.

Sergio Perez, Red Bull, Monaco, 2022
Perez surpassed Roriguez, who he paid tribute to
To put those figures into perspective, Valtteri Bottas is on 50%, Lewis Hamilton’s rate is exactly 100% (103 poles and wins), while Red Bull pair Verstappen and Perez are on 171.4% and 300% respectively.

Leclerc’s pole position was Ferrari’s 12th in Monaco, which is the most for any team, one more than McLaren’s 11.

George Russell maintained his record of finishing every race in the top five so far this year. However Verstappen’s third place ended his run of winning or retiring in every round.

He did extend his points lead over Leclerc, however, while Perez is only 15 points off the top spot. Indeed, had Red Bull not reversed the order of their drivers during the final stint in Spain, the championship could be extremely close, with Verstappen on 118 points, Perez 117 and Leclerc 116.

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Have you spotted any other interesting stats and facts from the Monaco Grand Prix? Share them in the comments.

2022 Monaco Grand Prix

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Keith Collantine
Lifelong motor sport fan Keith set up RaceFans in 2005 - when it was originally called F1 Fanatic. Having previously worked as a motoring...

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47 comments on “Verstappen now has as many poles as Leclerc – but six times as many wins”

  1. Last two races not his fault. He is driving exceptionally, brilliant, he needs to just keep going and going!

    Wheel of fortune is spinning and his time will come!

  2. Monaco and Monza are at the two opposite ends of the spectrum of F1 tracks, and history suggests that Sergio Perez, following his win in Monaco, will not win in Monza, as despite the two tracks having been on every F1 calendar since 1950 bar 1951-54, 1980 and 2020, only the following have won both in the same season. Those with an asterisk also won the championship that year:
    Sebastian Vettel (2011)*
    Fernando Alonso (2007)
    Ayrton Senna (1992)
    Ayrton Senna (1990)*
    Alain Prost (1985)*
    Jody Scheckter (1979)*
    Ronnie Peterson (1974)
    Stirling Moss (1956)

    1. > makes prediction on driver not winning specific race given the victory at another race same year because history
      > provides proof himself that the same thing has happened several times, in basically every F1 era /decade apart from the 60s.
      ok?

      1. He means it’s statistically unlikely, which indeed means perez SHOULD not win at monza, but tbh considering there’s verstappen and leclerc I would say perez is pretty unlikely to win at any vanue!

    2. I initially thought this was a meaningless stat that could be applied to any two races in the calendar, given that it’s more likely that a different driver would win the two races than the same driver. What’s surprising to me at least is that neither Hamilton or Schumacher are on the list above when they’ve dominated entire seasons with the highest % of races won of any drivers in history. What further brings this into focus is that Schumacher has won Monaco and Monza 5 times each and Hamilton has won Monaco 3 times and Monza 5 times, plenty of opportunity to win both in the one season, so there may be a car design philosophy aspect as you suggest @f1frog

      Also, while I’m commenting, the Pole Vs. wins stat for Leclerc to me points to the fact that he has the ability to out perform the car over one lap, certainly in 2019 and 2021 that was the case. I really think it’s misinterpreting the data to say that he’s a Trully type driver who was a one lap specialist and who’s race pace was lacking.

      1. If this statistic is valid I would say although they didn’t win Ferrari was the best car in Monaco and should not win in Monza.
        For the pole/race ratio of LEC I guess the 2019 one lap tweek that ferrari applied on their engines had some part in this. if they cheated with the feul sensors a pole is possible but a race win unlikely.

    3. Surprising Hamilton and Schumacher have never done it.

  3. More poles and racewins to come for him this year. Will it be enough against the reigning world champion? I think it is going to be difficult. Max Verstappen’s superbly fast driving has only been complemented by his consistency and this year seems to be no different from the last two in that regard. Leclerc can certainly take on Verstappen wheel-to-wheel, it’s the consistency that is could prove to be more difficult.
    I’d also like to point out that this season shows us how fighting for a championship can still have tough, respectful battles without drama and punting off drivers. This seems to have been almost forgotten during the Hamilton era.

    1. Yep – because after the s£&t show of MV driving last year there have been new rules and guidelines handed down.

      It has absolutely nothing to do with LH only race direction getting a grip on some of the clearly ridiculous driving by one person at the end of last year.

      About time

      And at least he listened

      1. How easily people prefer to ignore Hamilton’s driving in Bahrain…29 track limits, pushing Verstappen wide in Portugal and Jeddah, trying to send Perez into pitlane in Turkey and obviously above all, the 2nd thoughest recorded crash in Silverstone.

        What Hamilton masted was pointing at other’s…even when he crashed into the back of another driver he’s quickly to points at the guy ahead….pretending not knowing he had to give back position. Slowing down from 300 to 100 shifting through almost every gear and than label it a braketest…. thinking of it, the guy has humor.

        Hamilton denied about every single mistake made… three times he took out a RBR driver in a span of 29 races…always blamed the other, pitlane practice starts…did not know, track limits, did not know, seatbelt, did not know….
        lewis Hamilton runs a show, some love it…other’s see right through

  4. 2nd time since Melbourne 2017 that Bottas didn’t reach Q3.

    2nd consecutive Monaco GP qualifying with a late-Q3 red that guaranteed a Leclerc pole, albeit with a rival team driver causing the red this time around.

    Seb’s 1st 2022 Q3 appearance.

    Perez (with his 1st win nearly a year since his previous one in last season’s Azerbaijan GP) became the 3rd different driver to win this season, albeit RBR & Ferrari are still the only teams with wins.

    Norris became the 4th different driver to get a FLAP bonus point & Mclaren became the 3rd team in this regard.
    Furthermore, his 2nd bonus point (the previous came in the 2020 Turkish GP).

    1st race with a rolling start & without a single standing one since the 2016 Brazilian GP.

    Ferrari became the 1st team to lock out the front row in Monaco and not win since Ferrari in 2008.

    Alonso’s highest 2022 race result so far.

    3rd time this season that an Alpine driver received a post-race time penalty.

    Russell’s is also still the only driver with a full points-scoring record.

    Latifi has now finished two consecutive races as the 3rd-to-last runner.

  5. How many of those Leclerc poles have not resulted in a victory due to his own errors? Monoco last year would be an example but I am not sure there are many others. Whilst I put Verstappen slightly ahead of Leclerc in quality perhaps Leclerc’s skill at qualifying means they are closer than I realise.

    1. On the other hand, Leclerc has only won races from pole while Verstappen has won many times from further down the grid.

      Hard to draw conclusions merely from these statistics.

      1. Actually it shows Red Bull have frequently had a car with better race pace than qualifying in the hybrid era which is correct due to their power unit defect in the past. Meanwhile the Ferrari has had cars with High power in qualifying which then went backwards on race pace.

        1. @slowmo Also, on several occasions, Charles has wrung a lap from a car that probably shouldn’t have been able to get pole, let alone victory. Max has never really needed to do this.

    2. From the 10 poles that weren’t converted to pole positions:
      2 were down to reliability Bahrain 2019 and Spain 2022.
      2 were down to strategy Singapore 2019 and monaco 2022
      1 Race he didn’t even start Monanco 2021
      1 Race there wasn’t any chance really Baku 2021
      2 Races lost to Verstappen’s Red which had better race pace Miami 2022 and Austria 2019
      2 were down to Mercedes taking advantage of VSC by pitting at the right time Russia and Mexico 2019.
      So i would say 80% bad luck and 20% lacking in race craft. Although this comes to light because lets face it no other driver would have achieve as many with the cars at his disposal. At the same time his team mates achieved just 2 courtesy of Vettel in 2019 who is a 4wdc and no slouch in qualifying.

      1. @philby If I remember rightly, the 2019 Mexican GP was lost because Ferrari put him on a 2-stop strategy while everyone else went on the faster 1-stop. That race was typical Ferrari, they had a 1-2, and then managed to turn that into a 2-4 by giving their lead driver the wrong strategy resulting in him finishing 4th with an unnecessary pitstop, and their second driver the right strategy but pitting him on the wrong lap to give their rival the lead. Where have I seen that again?

    3. Indeed, he’s had several issues costing victories, including what would be his first victory due to a technical issue in bahrain 2019.

  6. Jonathan Parkin
    1st June 2022, 14:01

    How long was the red flag stoppage for Mick’s crash? Does anybody know

    1. @Jonathan Parkin I didn’t count, but certainly not the longest ever.

  7. Who has the biggest percentage of win-to-pole ratio?
    Of all the drivers to have won at least one pole, and at least one race, who has won the most races, compared to the number of poles they have?

    I’d guess someone like Prost?

    1. Denny Hulme. 8 wins, 1 pole.

    2. Or if you’re looking for difference rather than ratio, it would be Schumacher at +23 (91 wins, 68 poles).

    3. Prost indeed also qualifies since he has 51 wins and far less poles, obviously fighting with senna for those is a reason for him being high up in this stat.

    4. Jockey Ewing
      1st June 2022, 21:11

      I think, the win-to-pole ratio as a stat got really skewed by the the DRS itself, paired up with the high reliability (longevity) requirements for the modern cars. Or at least it is hard to interpret this stat in the DRS era, as previously, like in the eras of smaller, more nimble and less dirty air sensitive cars.

      I would say this stat would be the same as before if the pecking of the order of the teams would have changes much more frequently, because reliable cars delivered their expected results quite reliably, and DRS often was a filter for it. As a good example: how many races do we remember when Michael Schumacher defended remarkably in his midfield car for long long laps? DRS took things like this away from us. I have not minded the things like the Trulli train. The Trulli trains were remarkable, and imo many enjoyed those, that was part of the game, part of the diversity. If they have never had happened F1 would be lesser with a Trulli train. Similarly I like Monaco, that is very much part of the game for me. An unique jamboree. Building cars which can race well on the actual great tracks, would be more honest, and more sustainable, than building newer and newer circuits, and then using them for only a few years, while the cars and many surrounding circumstances have questionable future and sustainability.

      1. Jockey Ewing
        1st June 2022, 21:13

        … if the pecking order of the teams would have changed much more frequently…

      2. Jockey Ewing
        1st June 2022, 21:15

        Obviously my question, about Michael Schumacher’s remarkable defensive drives is about his second stint in F1, with Mercedes, in the DRS era.

  8. That has more to do with Charles being way too fast on saturdays and Verstappen wasting tons of opportunities for pole as early as Monaco 2016.

    Leclerc had absolutely no business being ahead of Verstappen and Hamilton at Baku last year, yet there he was, starting ahead with no chances of winning.

    1. Absolutely true, a shame it wasn’t possible to defend on that track, I think ferrari deserved to win monaco 2021 since they brought the fastest car over 1 lap, and would’ve been very likely if not for the car failure at start.

    2. Good point. Would you call Leclerc as the fastest over 1 lap of all 20 drivers then?

  9. There’s a finite number of races, and if some drivers have waaay more wins compared to PPs, of course someone else has exactly the opposite.

    So far 7 races, 2 wins Ferrari, 5 wins RBR. Oh my, how things changed after Australia! And SAI is the only driver with a capable car not having a PP or a win. Since they don’t have a dominant car to rely on the lead driver to cover the points deficit of the 2nd driver, they can say goodbye already to the WCC. Their only chance is the WDC, but it will be very tough indeed since LEC has to defeat both drivers of the same team and RBR won’t hesitate to use PER when needed&possible as a tool to defeat LEC.

    1. And generally speaking, red bull is a more organized team than ferrari, they are more sound with strategy and operationally and have a better in-season development, but we’ll see.

  10. At least 4 of Leclerc’s 14 pole positions have been achieved by driving an illegal car with a forbidden fuel system.

    1. Even with that it wasn’t the best car of the season, so putting it on pole is already a lot.

  11. Jockey Ewing
    1st June 2022, 20:50

    The RB of Verstappen was generally more efficient in races than in qualifications (mostly during the post Vettel era of RB). So they were not exceptional qualifiers, but occasionally achieved decent or better results at races.

    While Leclerc earned many of his poles when the Ferrari got really quick “for some reason”. After Ferrari being so quick by that time, happened what happened. Leclerc was a bit unlucky with winning (multiple) races during that relatively short interval. But at least he harvested those poles. I have little to no doubt about Leclerc’s capabilities as a WDC prospect (or more).

    One important point of their comparison is:
    It’s Leclerc’s 4th season in a midfield+ car, while it’s Verstappen’s 7th season in a midfield+ car, if we include the current season. Additionally, before getting promoted into a good car, both of them had 1 season in a lesser team. Not bad to get promotion that quickly, although imo both of them were good enough to achieve that, or at least to get tried by their current team.

    I like statistics, but not necessarily, and not infinitely. Most likely this is why I often interpret them in my own way :)

    1. Jockey Ewing
      1st June 2022, 20:53

      Plus, obviously, Leclerc seems to be a really good qualifier.

  12. Verstappen could have had 4 more poles had he not made mistakes on his quick laps.

    1. That’s just in 2021.

      1. @David

        Verstappen outqualified his teammates since 2017 88-17…………..I am pretty sure Max “wasting poles” is not the issue, Max not driving the fastest car for qualifying was.

  13. That comparison between Leclerc and Verstappen is perhaps more telling about their cars than their skills as drivers.
    While Charles had a very good qualifying car in 2019 (especially on power tracks), but not so much in the races, Max had cars with very good race pace since the second half of 2017 which lacked single-lap-pace (apart from last season).
    If things went a little bit differently, Charles could’ve won 9 or 10 races by now. I have no doubt that Charles Leclerc will get much more than 4 GP wins, as long as Ferrari stay competitive.
    Depending on how good Ferrari’s in-season development is going to be this season, Leclerc might even beat Nigel Mansell’s record for poles in a season (14). Of course Mansell did that with only 16 races in ’92. His poles-to-races ratio of 87.5% is going to be next to impossible to beat (Leclerc would have to claim all of the reamining pole positions).

  14. That’s some crazy stats, especially Leclerc already matching the same number of poles as Barrichello. It’s frustrating as a Ferrari fan that they just don’t have their strategy on point. It’s as if they just overlook it, and don’t have the same resources devoted to it as other teams. They’re just flailing in the wind when you need to be 100% on top of it to achieve success in this ridiculously competitive sport. They need to fix it or they’ll never be champions again barring some wundercar.

  15. Indeed, had Red Bull not reversed the order of their drivers during the final stint in Spain, the championship could be extremely close, with Verstappen on 118 points, Perez 117 and Leclerc 116.

    I like this stat showing how close Perez could’ve been to leading the WDC. But at the same time few people believe that Perez would’ve won Spain had RBR not interfered.

  16. Please stop counting the Non Legal Ones… We the People and you the press didn’t sign the Settlement Agreement….

  17. Verstappen’s run of finishing either 1st or 2nd in races where he didn’t suffer damage or retirement that stretched back to Turkish GP 2020 has now ended.

    A remarkable run.

  18. First circuit at which Sainz has finished on the podium twice.

    The AlphaTauris started 11th and 17th and finished in those positions (but reversed).

    26th consecutive season in which at least 1 Mercedes-powered car has managed a fastest lap – an outright record (previously shared with Ferrari from 1995-2019).

    16th consecutive season in which at least 1 British driver has managed a fastest lap.

    The two most recent red-flagged races both had a red flag which was due to a crash of Mick Schumacher, resulting in a damaged barrier.

    First time that two drivers whose surnames end in ‘z’ have finished 1st and 2nd in a race.

    This may be the first time that two drivers who both crashed in qualifying went on to finish 1st and 2nd.

    Red Bull have won 3 of the last 4 Monaco GPs, with 3 different engine suppliers (Tag Heuer, Honda, Red Bull).

    5th consecutive Monaco GP in which Ferrari have finished 2nd.

    Haas had never had a DNF in Monaco prior to this year, and now have had 2.

    Thanks to statsf1, Wikipedia, and the official F1 site for some of these.

  19. Verstappens streak, since the start of the 2021 season, of finishing either 1st or 2nd when he finishes has ended with him finishing 3rd in Monaco (not sure how to fit Hungary 2021 in it, but it is clear his car was heavily damaged by Bottas there). This impressive achievement which might be unique would be a nice topic for an article.

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