Scuderia Ferrari is Officially BACK Starting Tomorrow's Monaco Grand Prix in First Thanks to Big Cat

FIA Pool. Shutterstock Images.

WHAT A SATURDAY MORNING IN MONACO!! Today was the qualifying sessions for Sunday's Monaco Grand Prix and oh man did it bring the drama that you love to see in F1. Monaco is the most prestigious race of the year in the sport. The race is run on the streets of the historic city, which is incredible, but also means that it's extremely tight, which leaves no room for cars to pass each other during the race. This is the biggest criticism the most famous Grand Prix on the F1 calendar gets is that it's actually one of the most boring races of the season. BUT what that does mean was that today's qualifying session was extremely important, which you would have known last night if you were following F1 expert Big Cat

And today's qualifying did not disappoint. Monaco is the most unique track on the calendar because, unlike every other race, the pace of the car is nowhere near as important as the skill of the driver. Drivers who have the confidence to throw their car at high speeds into extremely tight corners are what determines who does well and who doesn't at Monaco. This picture pretty much sums it up

This lead to seven different teams in the top ten qualifying shootout with a chance at the pole and a shake-up of the usual Sir Lewis Hamilton, Max Verstappen, Valtteri Bottas running order we've seen in the first four races of the season. The team that had been turning a lot of heads all weekend during practice was Scuderia Ferrari and they showed up big time in qualifying. 

The team has been on the comeback trail this season after finishing last year's championship in seventh, their worst season in over forty years. Today they proved that they are officially BACK with Charles Leclerc, who's racing in his home Grand Prix, starting tomorrow's race in P1, and Carlos Sainz Jr. starting tomorrow in P4. But it wouldn't be F1 if it didn't come in dramatic fashion. 

In the final qualifying session, Leclerc put in a great lap and was sitting in first place on the provisional pole, closely followed by Verstappen, Bottas, and Sainz. With five minutes left in the session, everyone headed out to take their final lap. Verstappen was in the middle of a lap that looked like it would have beaten out Leclerc to put him in first, but then disaster struck as Leclerc sent his Ferrari into the wall at the swimming pool corner, ending qualifying for everyone, because his car was stuck in the middle of the road.

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So who gets to start in first place for tomorrow's race? Leclerc, because he had the best lap time on the board. THIS LEAGUE. Leclerc's crash secured him the most important pole position of the year, leaving Verstappen and Bottas shit out of luck despite looking like they were going to have better times than him. What makes F1 great is that you can get full access to hear all of the conversations between the teams and the drivers when they're on track, which gave us these incredible clips of Verstappen and Sainz finding out about Leclerc's crash and that their laps wouldn't count because the session was over.

Ok, so a bunch of you have already skipped to the comment section of this blog to furiously tell me that Leclerc might have a broken gearbox from his crash, forcing the team to put in a new one for the race. This would cause him to lose pole position and send him back five places on the grid for the race. Even Leclerc was worried about it after the session.

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But as someone who responsibly bet on Leclerc (+700) and Ferrari (+350) to win tomorrow's race, I am POSITIVE. VIBES. ONLY. right now and will not be acknowledging the haters who want to bring me down. If he does end up with a grid penalty, I will not be updating the blog, and I will not be taking any questions at that time.

So as of right now, Ferrari has Leclerc starting tomorrow in first place and Sainz in fourth place which is a huge step forward for the Scuderia in their comeback. This is setting up for an edge of your seat race tomorrow where two of the best young drivers in the sport will be going wheel to wheel. There might not be much passing, but the battle between Leclerc and Verstappen will be must watch to see who will end up on the top step of the podium and write their name into history. The future is bright for the sport with hopefully 10+ years of battles between these two guys ahead. 

If there's one thing that everyone can agree on is that if there's one person the Scuderia needs to thank for their comeback is Mr. Big Cat. He became a Ferrari fan and then the next race their on pole at the biggest race of the season #GrazieBigCat

Here's everything else you need to know for tomorrow's race.

The Title Fight

Hasan Bratic. Shutterstock Images.

Hamilton who is usually a lock for being in the top three of qualifying in every race appeared to lose confidence in his car in the final practice session and had a disappointing qualifying. He is starting tomorrow's race in seventh place, which is going to lead to a long day tomorrow trying to pass several very talented drivers to get back into podium contention. The drivers he would need to get through tomorrow are Pierre Gasley, Lando Norris, and Carlos Sainz, who are some of the most talented drivers in the sport right now not on Mercedes or Red Bull. It doesn't matter how talented Hamilton is or how fast that Mercedes car is that's an extremely tough task in a place like Monaco.

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Verstappen is fourteen points behind Hamilton in the Driver's Championship. This race is a massive opportunity to make up ground and pull even with him. Just as much as Verstappen wants to win the race tomorrow, he simply can not afford to make a mistake and put in jeopardy capitalizing on this chance to make up a lot of points on Hamilton.

As for the Mercedes vs. Red Bull Constructors Championship battle, it is pretty much even in terms of position for the race going into tomorrow, despite Hamilton starting in seventh. Bottas did exactly what he needed to do in qualifying and is starting tomorrow in third place and is going to be all over the back of Verstappen. However, the story is the same at Red Bull where Verstappen is challenging for the win, while second Red Bull driver, Sergio Perez, is starting tomorrow in a disappointing ninth place. He has the same long road ahead of him as Hamilton in tomorrow's race trying to make up ground and get back into contention. Red Bull is twenty-nine points behind Mercedes right now and doesn't look like they will make up much ground tomorrow. It doesn't matter what Red Bull says publicly about supporting Perez and believing in him, his leash will get real short, real quick if he doesn't start qualifying that Red Bull car, which Verstappen has proven has a ton of potential this year, in better spots to give the team two cars in contention. You know you're out of position in a Red Bull car when you're lining up on the grid next to Antonio Giovinazzi in an Alfa Romeo. 

Team Principle and Friday's Pardon My Take guest, Christian Horner, has proven that he's not afraid to make big, bold moves when it comes to swapping out that second seat, which you would hate to see happen to someone as experienced, talented, and likable as Perez. Personally, that's who I'm going to be watching and rooting for tomorrow to have a good race other than the Scuderia boys. COME ON CHECO

The Rest of the Field

Dan Istitene - Formula 1. Getty Images.

Monaco is a weird track in relation to the rest of the season because the track is so different than the majority of other races on the calendar. Just because a team performs well here, doesn't mean it's a sign for the rest of the season. But what it does show is where the drivers are at with their confidence level in the car, which is a huge indicator for the rest of the season. Three drivers who proved that they're very confident in their car in today's qualifying were Lando Norris, Pierre Gasly, and Sainz. On the other end of that spectrum were the ones that proved they're still struggling, which was Daniel Ricciardo and Fernando Alonso.

Norris, Gasly, and Sainz will be a really interesting group to watch in tomorrow's race to see if they are pushing forward and getting into the mix for the podium or if they are sliding back into the battle with Hamilton, Vettel, and Perez. These battles tomorrow are super important for the season standings, especially for Norris and McLaren. McLaren right now is in a dog fight with Ferrari for third place in the Constructors Championship, only five points ahead of the Scuderia. With the Ferrari's in contention for the win and double podium, this could be a massive swing and ultimately the difference at the end of the season between third and fourth place. Especially with former Monaco Grand Prix winner, Daniel Ricciardo, starting tomorrow's race in a very disappointing twelfth place.

The former two-time world champion, Alonso, continued his struggles so far this season. He's coming off of several years of being out of F1 and still doesn't look confident behind the wheel of the Alpine car in his first season back, starting tomorrow's race all the way back in seventeenth place, while his teammate, Estaban Ocon is starting in eleventh. It's only five races into the season but it's becoming very clear that the battle for third place this season in the Constructors is going to be a two-team race with Alpine, Aston Martin, and Alpha Tauri all failing to keep up with Ferrari and McLaren. Alpine is in fifth place right now in the Constructors but is forty-five points behind Ferrari in fourth and that gap looks like it will only get bigger this weekend. 

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Tomorrow's race might not have much passing, but it's also F1 so you can never count out chaos happening at any moment, just like today's qualifying. I'll be on the edge of my seat tomorrow watching at 9 am ET on ESPN 2 praying that the Ferrari boys can deliver a win and I can cash my Barstool Sportsbook bets. If you really want to make things interesting tomorrow morning, especially if you're in the state of Indiana, the Barstool Sportsbook has great bets for the race with tons of great prop bets and head-to-head matchups. I say this every weekend but I love Nakita Mazepin First Driver to DNF

Drop your official prediction for tomorrow and let's talk about it today on Twitter.

And finally… LIGHTS OUT AND AWAY WE GO for the Monaco Grand Prix