At the third time of asking?

How will Charles Leclerc sleep tonight? Relaxed and happy with this afternoon's fantastic pole or tossing and turning, worried that he might see the race win escape him as it has done in the past?

As the saying goes, good things come in threes and Charles has indeed made the most of that so far, earning the privilege of starting from the most coveted spot on the grid in Monaco, which is generally regarded as already having one hand on the winner's trophy. But he won't be convinced that victory is assured, because the past two times the Ferrari driver has started from pole, in 2021 and 2022, the win never came.

On the first of those two occasions, Leclerc didn't even manage to start the race, as he had to pit at the end of his lap to the grid, because the fact that his left driveshaft was broken had not been spotted when his gearbox had to be changed on Sunday morning. His world fell apart that day, even if he was partly to blame as the gearbox change was required after he had hit the barriers at the exit to the swimming pool section just before the end of qualifying.

In 2022, the reason the win failed to materialise was the cause of much anger, as it was down to a poor strategy call when the rain arrived. At the time, it looked as though Charles would be leading home a Ferrari one-two, but he ended up fourth, behind the two Red Bulls and his team-mate Sainz, who finished second. That fourth place is his best result to date in Monte Carlo. In 2018 with Sauber, Leclerc had to retire and the same fate befell him the following year, his first season at Ferrari and last year, he finished sixth.

Therefore, tomorrow, Charles has a great chance of making it third time lucky, when it comes to converting pole to victory. Not only does he start from pole, but his team-mate is right behind him, not just a team-mate but a team player, keen to do everything in his power to ensure that Ferrari wins in Monaco. Leclerc's chances must be further enhanced by the fact that unusually, Max Verstappen is way down in sixth place on the grid and will have to fight his way past some tough opposition if he wants to challenge the pole sitter. Between the Ferrari duo is McLaren's Oscar Piastri, while his team-mate Lando Norris is fourth and George Russell is fifth for Mercedes.

It's an opportunity not to be missed for Leclerc, not just because he's a Monegasque trying to win at home, but also because victory would shine a different light on his championship chances. He is currently 48 points behind Max, a big enough gap but not irreversible. As for the Constructors' standings, the Scuderia is second, 56 points behind Red Bull and today, a less than brilliant Perez was eliminated in Q1 a fortnight on from going out in Q2 in Imola. Add in the fact that Ferrari and McLaren are both closing on the leader in terms of performance and the champions cannot rest on their laurels or rely on the dominant form they showed from the middle of last year onwards.
Therefore, everything should be in place for Sunday to be tinged with red in Monaco, and for Leclerc to put his home race jinx to bed.