Max Verstappen achieved pole position for the Monaco Grand Prx in a thrilling battle between Fernando Alonso and Charles Leclerc.
The double world champion overcame a two-tenth disadvantage to Alonso in the final sector to make a last-gasp swoop for the fastest time, his resulting time of one minute, 11.365 seconds meant his first pole position in qualifying at the Monte Carlo street circuit.
Verstappen had set a banker with a one minute, 12.102 seconds at the start of the session, but the lap was immediately outclassed by Alonso, who grabbed a one minute, 11.706 seconds to raise the bar considerably – and felt that he’d “pushed like an animal” to take provisional pole.
The Ferraris of Charles Leclerc and Carlos Sainz were unable to beat Alonso’s time, but moved ahead of Verstappen in the order as the Red Bull driver was forced to abandon his initial riposte.
Verstappen had another crack on his initial set of tyres and fell slightly short of Alonso in the opening sectors, but nailed the Rascasse and Antony Noghes corners to move to the top with a one minute, 11.654 seconds.
Esteban Ocon made a surprise charge to the top with a one minute, 11.553 seconds as the second round of runs began, until Leclerc put his Ferrari above him with a one minute, 11.471 seconds.
Alonso then charged to provisional pole with a one minute, 11.449 seconds, sending his Aston Martin mechanics into raptures, but all eyes were on Verstappen as he was set to close out the session.
Verstappen was over a tenth shy in the opening sector and his arrears grew to over two tenths, but he found three tenths over Alonso to dampen Aston Martin’s spirits.
Leclerc’s lap was good enough to start on the second row, alongside Ocon after the Alpine driver’s surprisingly strong effort was enough for fourth.
Sainz joined Lewis Hamilton on the third row, as the Mercedes driver scraped through into Q3, as Gasly and Russell filled out the fourth row. Yuki Tsunoda and Lando Norris completed the top ten, the latter able to return to the circuit after tagging the wall at Tabac in Q2.
The McLaren driver damaged the right-hand side of his car, forcing him to abandon the lap that he was on. Nonetheless, his earlier lap was enough to keep him on the right side of the elimination zone.
Norris also appeared to be impeded by Leclerc, which hindered his progress beyond P10.
Hamilton was also on the brink of elimination having been stranded in the drop zone with time for one more lap, and despite reporting that his tyres weren’t ready, the seven-time champion’s improvisation was enough to book him a spot into the top ten at the expense of Oscar Piastri.
Nyck de Vries bagged P12 on the grid ahead of Alex Albon, while Lance Stroll was hamstrung by confusion over his attendance at the weighbridge. The Canadian missed his call to get the car weighed, requiring the Aston Martin mechanics to roll his car back for the FIA to take his cornerweights. Valtteri Bottas will start the race P15, having been in the top ten after the initial foray of Q2 runs.
Sergio Perez was the biggest scalp of Q1 after his clash with the wall at Sainte Devote, which brought out the red flag with 11 minutes left on the clock.
The Red Bull driver carried too much speed into the opening corner and, as a result, the rear end of his Red Bull RB19 stepped out. The momentum pushed him towards the exit wall, hitting the Tecpro barrier with his rear-left wheel and causing heavy damage to his rear suspension.
Amid rapid track evolution when the session resumed, Carlos Sainz and Lewis Hamilton were significantly at risk and languished in the drop zone as the Q1 session trickled towards its closing stages. Sainz had aborted laps, while Hamilton suffered a slip on his penultimate flying lap at the Nouvelle Chicane and rapidly had to regroup for one final push.
Under the pressure, both drivers delivered and managed to progress out of the bottom five, at the expense of the Haas duo as Kevin Magnussen and Nico Hulkenberg were dumped out at the opening stage.
Logan Sargeant leapfrogged the pair of Haas cars while Perez starts last following his crash, alongside Zhou Guanyu.
So an exciting qualifying session with the drivers pushing to the limits. The ending to Q3 was thrilling and yet the world champion produced the result to score his first Monaco Grand Prix pole. With Fernando Alonso alongside him, the race is going to be epic. Roll on the Monaco Grand Prix!
Monaco Grand Prix, qualifying positions:
1 Max Verstappen Red Bull 1:11.365
2 Fernando Alonso Aston Martin 1:11.449
3 Charles Leclerc Ferrari 1:11.471
4 Esteban Ocon Alpine 1:11.553
5 Carlos Sainz Ferrari 1:11.630
6 Lewis Hamilton Mercedes 1:11.725
7 Pierre Gasly Alpine 1:11.933
8 George Russell Mercedes 1:11.964
9 Yuki Tsunoda AlphaTauri 1:12.082
10 Lando Norris McLaren 1:12.254
11 Oscar Piastri McLaren 1:12.395
12 Nyck de Vries AlphaTauri 1:12.428
13 Alexander Albon Williams 1:12.527
14 Lance Stroll Aston Martin 1:12.623
15 Valtteri Bottas Alfa Romeo 1:12.625
16 Logan Sargeant Williams 1:13.113
17 Kevin Magnussen Haas 1:13.270
18 Nico Hulkenberg Haas 1:13.279
19 Zhou Guanyu Alfa Romeo 1:13.523
20 Sergio Perez Red Bull 1:13.850
Monaco Grand Prix qualifying review as reported by Formula1.com.
Red Bull driver Max Verstappen will start the Monaco Grand Prix from pole position after coming out on top in a breathless qualifying hour at the Monte Carlo circuit, pipping Aston Martin rival Fernando Alonso and Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc.
In a pole shootout that did not feature Verstappen’s team mate, Sergio Perez, who crashed out of Q1, several drivers had spells at the top of the timesheets amid a sequence of laps that had fans on the edge of their seats.
With Alonso on provisional pole, it took a mighty effort of 1m 11.365s from Verstappen to secure P1, denying the Spaniard what would have been his first pole since the 2012 season by just under a tenth of a second.
Alonso nonetheless took a spot on the front row, followed by home favourite Leclerc and the Alpine of Esteban Ocon, who posted a stunning lap of his own to get the better of Carlos Sainz in the other Ferrari.
Lewis Hamilton recovered from his accident in final practice and scruffy Q1 and Q2 phases to take sixth in the revised Mercedes W14, followed by the second Alpine of Pierre Gasly and team mate George Russell.
Yuki Tsunoda achieved his second Q3 appearance of the season en route to ninth position, with Lando Norris rounding out the top 10 places despite a meeting with the barriers in the Q2 segment.
While Norris progressed to Q3, Piastri just missed out in the other McLaren, taking 11th ahead of Nyck de Vries – who recorded the best qualifying result of his AlphaTauri stint to date in 12th – Williams’ Alexander Albon, Aston Martin’s Lance Stroll and Alfa Romeo’s Valtteri Bottas.
Logan Sargeant lacked just over half a tenth in his quest for Q2, with the American the first to miss the cut in 16th, followed by Kevin Magnussen – whose FP3 session was impacted by hydraulics trouble – and Nico Hulkenberg in a double Q1 exit for Haas.
Zhou Guanyu ended qualifying back in 19th position, despite at one stage topping the timesheets during a busy opening phase, with Perez’s early accident exiting Sainte Devote leaving him at the foot of the order and facing a massive challenge to score points on Sunday.
https://www.formula1.com/en/latest/article.verstappen-snatches-pole-position-from-alonso-in-thrilling-monaco-gp.4jHGOGbDO2KGFY3G8ESZJ9.html
Max Verstappen revealed he brushed the wall several times on a spectacular final sector push to snatch pole away from Fernando Alonso at Formula 1’s Monaco Grand Prix.
Red Bull’s championship leader was down in fifth after the first barrage of Q3 runs. Amid scintillating pole bids by Esteban Ocon, Charles Leclerc and Alonso, Verstappen then had the last word as the chequered flag dropped.
Despite two personal bests, he was still trailing Aston Martin driver Alonso heading into the final sector, but with a stunning recovery, his 1m11.365s effort pipped the Spaniard at the line by 0.084 seconds.
Verstappen was seen brushing the pit straight wall on his way to P1 and later revealed he “clipped a few barriers” on his way to his first-ever pole in the principality.
“My first sector was not ideal on my final lap, I think Turn 1 was a bit cautious,” he said.
“But then I knew I was behind, so the last sector I gave it everything I had, clipped a few barriers but of course very happy to be on pole here for the first time.
“We knew that this was going be a bit of a struggle for us to get everything together, yesterday was not the best start but we kept on improving and kept on being better. But then in qualifying you need to go all out and risk it all.”
https://www.motorsport.com/f1/news/verstappen-clipped-a-few-barriers-on-frantic-monaco-f1-pole-run/10474381/
Fernando Alonso admitted that his Monaco Grand Prix qualifying laps came with an “uncomfortable” amount of risk as he attempted to claim his first Formula 1 pole since 2012.
The two-time champion headed a thrilling Q3 session at two points, but was pipped on both occasions by Max Verstappen as the Red Bull driver’s prowess in the final sector decided pole in his favour.
After his first flying lap in Q3, Alonso felt that he “drove like an animal” to briefly head the session, but had to dig deeper in his second run in his bid to overturn Verstappen.
He reckoned that his efforts were sometimes “over the limit” as he hoped to clinch an all-important pole at Monaco, but addressed the Aston Martin AMR23’s weakness in the final part of the lap.
“We were increasing the level to an uncomfortable level of risk, let’s say,” Alonso, who scored his last pole in Germany in 2012, reflected.
“I think both laps in Q3 were a little bit over the limit sometimes, but everything went fine. The last sector seems our weakest part of the circuit.
“We were, I think, eighth quickest in the last sector. So there is something going on there that we need to analyse a little bit. Maybe going Singapore or whatever is the next opportunity [to address] that.”
https://www.motorsport.com/f1/news/alonso-took-uncomfortable-risks-in-hunt-for-f1-monaco-gp-pole/10474421/
Sergio Perez said “I cannot believe what I’ve done” after crashing out of qualifying for Formula 1’s Monaco Grand Prix, which will leave him at the back of the grid.
On his second qualifying lap of Q1, Perez lost the rear of the car turning into Sainte Devote, slapping the left-rear corner of his Red Bull RB19 into the barriers.
Perez’s accident brought out the red flag and caused sizeable damage to his car.
“Unbelievable day. I cannot believe what I what I’ve done,” Perez responded to the costly incident.
“It just caught me by surprise, just getting that rear out of shape, especially really late into the corner.
“It’s a way of how we were trying to get the lap time out of it, but I just went over the limit and I became a passenger. There was nothing else I could do because it was really late in the corner, and I could not cut the corner or go out of the corner.”
To make matters worse for Perez, the closeness of the grid and the rapid track progression dropped the Mexican’s first flying lap down to last, meaning he will face an impossible task to salvage a result on the narrow streets of the principality.
“Yeah, it came around as a big surprise,” Perez replied when asked if he was surprised that his banker lap left him last on the charts.
“Saying that isn’t an excuse. I should have done better today, and all I can say I’m very sorry to my team, because you put so much energy, so much work preparing everything, and then you just disappoint everyone like this.
“I’m super disappointed today with myself and I know that tomorrow it’s going to be an impossible race.”
https://www.motorsport.com/f1/news/perez-i-cannot-believe-what-ive-done-in-monaco-f1-qualifying-crash/10474424/
Charles Leclerc’s troubles on home soil in Monaco have continued after the Ferrari driver was given a three-place grid penalty for blocking McLaren rival Lando Norris during Saturday’s qualifying session.
Leclerc had qualified third, behind Red Bull’s Max Verstappen and Aston Martin’s Fernando Alonso, but he will now drop to sixth position, promoting the Alpine of Esteban Ocon, team mate Carlos Sainz’s Ferrari and the Mercedes of Lewis Hamilton.
In a post-qualifying investigation, which included discussions with both drivers involved, a thorough review of data, video footage and radio messages, the stewards determined that Leclerc had impeded Norris during the final Q3 phase.
“Leclerc had finished his final lap of Q3 and was in the Turn 4 through Turn 10 complex,” read the stewards’ report. “Norris was on a fast lap and caught Leclerc in the middle of the tunnel and was clearly impeded.
“Both drivers agreed that there was little that Leclerc could have safely done in the tunnel to avoid impeding Norris, given the difficulty in vision due to the light entering and in the tunnel and the change of lines from one side of the tunnel to the other.
“In fact, the stewards observed that Leclerc reacted in a sensible way to a blue flag displayed by the marshals, but at this point it was too late. However, the stewards reviewed team radio, and Leclerc’s team failed to give him any warning about Norris’ approach until Norris was already directly behind him.
“Further, the discussion during the preceding portion of the track was entirely about competing drivers, not the traffic behind, which is a critical task at this track.
“The stewards believe that there is much that Leclerc could have done prior to the tunnel to avoid the impeding had he received warning from the team at an appropriate time, especially considering that Norris’ approach was clear on the marshalling system.
“Thus, the stewards consider that the impeding was unnecessary. The stewards reviewed all the preceding unnecessarily impeding penalties in the past few years.
“In every case, the actions, or inaction of the team did not mitigate the unnecessary impeding. Thus the stewards impose the usual penalty of a three grid drop.”
Source: Formula1.com