Kimi Antonelli took pole position on the streets of Monaco for the very first time as he looks to win his fifth consecutive race.
Q1
Due to the nature of Monaco, a crash is never too far away, which Gabriel Bortoleto found out when he put his car into the barriers by the nouvelle chicane.
While there was enough time for others to improve their times, Borotleto was still able to make it out of Q1, though the crash would guarantee that he starts tomorrow’s race in 16th.
There weren’t any surprise eliminations during Q1, though Alonso’s P21 finish in his Aston Martin would mark his worst starting position for the Monaco Grand Prix during his 25 year career.
ELIMINATED
17. Esteban Ocon (Haas) +0.037
18. Sergio Perez (Cadillac) +0.062
19. Ollie Bearman (Haas) +0.129
20. Valtteri Bottas (Cadillac) +0.598
21. Fernando Alonso (Aston Martin) +0.664
22. Lance Stroll (Aston Martin) +1.376
Q2
The margins during Monaco qualifying are always thin, which was shown by both Williams drivers during Q2, who each just narrowly missed out on a place in Q3 by less than 6 hundredths of a second.
Lawson managed to find enough time to put himself through to the final part of qualifying, though his teammate would be slowest of those running in this session, almost half a second behind Gasly in 10th.
ELIMINATED
11. Alex Albon (Williams) +0.025
12. Carlos Sainz (Williams) +0.053
13. Nico Hulkenberg (Audi) +0.140
14. Franco Colapinto (Alpine) +0.233
15. Arvid Lindblad (Racing Bulls) +0.486
16. Gabriel Bortoleto (Audi) NO TIME
Q3
The early part of Q3 showed that Antonelli and Verstappen were in a class of their own, with the latter only one thousandth of a second behind the Mercedes driver to put himself on the provisional front row.
Leclerc had gone to start his final laps earlier than every one else, after having made a mistake during his banker lap. The Monaco native would provisionally take pole position with just two minutes left, but the likes of Antonelli, Verstappen and Hamilton would all improve to take positions 1, 2 and 3 respectively.
Leclerc gave himself enough time to set just one more lap, and while he was pushing to the absolute limits of to try and get pole position for his home race, he would end up losing control of the car at Tabac, causing him to lose control of the car and hit the wall. This would mean that he will end up starting tomorrow’s race in 4th place.
Qualifying Results
1. Kimi Antonelli (Mercedes) 1:12.051
2. Max Verstappen (Red Bull) +0.043
3. Lewis Hamilton (Ferrari) +0.228
4. Charles Leclerc (Ferrari) +0.300
5. Isack Hadjar (Red Bull) +0.383
6. George Russell (Mercedes) +0.394
7. Oscar Piastri (McLaren) +0.573
8. Lando Norris (McLaren) +0.714
9. Pierre Gasly (Alpine) +1.175
10. Liam Lawson (Racing Bulls) +1.361
