Charles Leclerc is hoping to turn around a streak of bad luck at his home event, this weekend’s Monaco Grand Prix.

While several F1 drivers live in Monaco, Leclerc is the only driver from the principality competing in this year’s grand prix.

“For any driver it’s very special to race at home,” he said. “I’m quite lucky to have one of my favourite tracks at home – and a city track, I love driving on city tracks so obviously I’m even more motivated to get a good result there.”

However Leclerc’s two previous appearances in Monaco have resulted in disappointment. In F2 in 2017 he won pole position, kept the lead from the start and managed to avoid contact while setting extremely fast laps – until a disastrous pit stop saw him come out in traffic, with one tyre not secured properly.

Leclerc said earlier this year losing the chance to win his home F2 race felt even worse than missing out on his maiden grand prix win in Bahrain.

In his first F1 race at home last year, Leclerc suffered a brake disc failure coming out of the tunnel and collided with Brendon Hartley while they were fighting for 11th place.

Leclerc said he hopes to reverse his fortunes at his home track this year.

“The last two years have not been so lucky for me so hopefully the luck will be by my side this year and then we will see. But obviously I’m really looking forward to racing there.”

The last Monegasque driver to do so was Louis Chiron in 1931, 19 years before the world championship began.

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2019 F1 season