Two of Formula 1’s constants are Scuderia Ferrari and Monaco. This is the race all of the drivers really want to win – while there are new street circuits emerging, there is no challenge like threading the eye of a needle for almost two hours around the streets of Monte Carlo.
Monaco’s track is through the city of Monte Carlo, with cars racing alongside the Mediterranean Sea. The South of France and North of Italy surround this spectacular and glamorous venue which has held Grand Prix racing since 1929. Expect to see the harbour lined with yachts and a celebrity or two for Martin Brundle’s grid walk. For those at the track, one of the places to be is the Red Bull Energy Station – a floating palace that includes a swimming pool, bar and legendary parties come sundown.
Max Verstappen edged Red Bull team-mate Sergio Perez in final practice at the Monaco Grand Prix as Lewis Hamilton crashed ahead of what promises to be a thrilling qualifying session on the streets of Monte Carlo. Several drivers, including Aston Martin’s Fernando Alonso who finished 14th and the two Ferrari cars, failed to get clean flying laps in during the final 60 minutes, leaving doubt as to the others’ true pace.
Scuderia Ferrari encountered an unexpected problem in the final free practice session, as both Charles Leclerc and Carlos Sainz struggles with bouncing through the swimming pool section, which clearly affected the lap times. This meant the Maranello team had a lot of work to do in a short amount of time today in order for Charles Leclerc to have a chance of becoming the first driver since Ayrton Senna to be on pole in Monaco three times in a row.
Monaco Qualifying was therefore go! The Williams and AlphaTauri drivers led the field out onto the track. Lewis Hamilton’s Mercedes was repaired and he was out on track for his first qualifying lap of the afternoon. His opening effort was only a 1:14.433 which initially put him sixth in the early timesheet. Max Verstappen set the fastest time in Q1 at that stage with a 1:13.784. It put him just 0.066s ahead of team-mate Sergio Perez. However, the Mexican hit the wall at Turn 1 and got a huge hole in his left sidepod. Like Alex Albon did in practice yesterday, the Mexican took too much speed into Turn 1 and slid into the barriers, wrecking his RB19. It was clear that at the very best, last year’s race winner would be starting from P15 if his initial lap could get him through to Q2.
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Sergio Perez’s car was cleared and the barrier now deemed safe, so Q1 could restart. There was a big stampede out of the pit lane.
Max Verstappen was back on top with a 1:12.444 to go ahead of Fernando Alnoso. Charles Leclerc popped his Ferrari into third but it was Lewis Hamilton who could be the big story here in Q1. Lewis Hamilton and Carlos Sainz were the big names in real danger: the Ferrari man was 15th and right on the cusp of the drop zone, Hamilton was 12th and bolted on a new set of soft tyres.
Lewis Hamilton failed to improve in the first sector but two personal bests see the Mercedes driver get into Q2! Carlos Sainz needed a big final lap as well and he went into fourth. The five drivers out in Q1 were Logan Sargeant, Kevin Magnussen, Nico Hulkenberg, Zhou Guanyu and Sergio Perez.
Not much of a break then because Q2 was go already! Five more drivers to be eliminated and it was Max Verstappen who was leading the queue of cars.
Max Verstappen put down a big marker with three rapid sectors – 18.804, 34.148, 19.086 – to do a 1:12.038 which was the fastest time of the weekend so far. Pierre Gasly did a great lap to go second, only 0.131s behind Verstappen, with Fernando Alonso, Esteban Ocon and Carlos Sainz rounding out the top five. Lewis Hamilton was having to use the same tyres he finished Q1 with for his initial efforts as Mercedes looked to get back on track with their tyre plans. He was 11th and last of the drivers to have set a proper lap time so far in Q2. Team-mate George Russell was one place ahead. Pierre Gasly and Esteban Ocon slotted into second and fourth in the early Q2 timesheet. The Alpine drivers looked in good knick today and could be on for a lofty grid position as we reached the latter stages.
With three minutes to go, Charles Leclerc was seventh but he moved to second as we could visibly see everyone was pushing the limits more and more. Lando Norris took too much speed into Tabac and hit the barriers, but he managed to carry on and was back in the pit lane. These were the five drivers who failed to make it into the final qualifying session in Monaco: Oscar Piastri, Nyck de Vries, Alex Albon, Lance Stroll and Valtteri Bottas.
The most important battle for pole position was now under way. Could anyone stop Max Verstappen claiming pole? The Dutchman has never claimed pole position in Monaco before. But it was not a great lap from Max Verstappen, slower than his Q2 time in fact. Fernando Alonso set a 1:11.706 to take top spot, as the Spaniard was three tenths faster than Max Verstappen’s effort. And the two Ferrari cars couldn’t beat the Aston Martin man, with Carlos Sainz 0.029s back and Charles Leclerc 0.053s back.
But what a final sector from Verstappen on his following lap. He was over one tenth down after Sector 2 but found a chunk of time in the final part of the lap. However, Esteban Ocon was on provisional pole with three minutes to go! Incredible stuff! What a final 3 minutes we had in store! On his next fast lap, Charles Leclerc went fastest, but Fernando Alonso was flying further back! So close for Fernando Alonso, but Max Verstappen stole pole position with a stunning final sector. It looked like the Spaniard was going to take it, but Verstappen went purple in Sector 3 and pipped the Aston Martin driver by 0.084s.
Charles Leclerc will start the Monaco Grand Prix from third place, while his Maranello teammate Carlos Sainz from fifth place, behind Esteban Ocon
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