Written by Aiden Hover, Edited by Tanishka Vashee
Charles Leclerc will start tomorrow’s Monaco Grand Prix on Pole Position following great pace all weekend and a stunning lap at the beginning of Q3 – albeit he will be kicking himself to crash in the dying stages of the session to bring out a red flag. Nonetheless, the Ferrari driver will be ecstatic to qualify at the front at his home Grand Prix.
Max Verstappen will join the Monegasque on the front row of the grid just ahead of Valtteri Bottas. Both of these drivers will be happy to have the chance to gain some ground on Hamilton’s championship lead tomorrow but will be annoyed to have had to abort their quick laps due to Leclerc’s red flag.
Leclerc’s teammate, Carlos Sainz, qualified 4th as he too capitalised on a surprisingly quick Ferrari. Sainz’s former McLaren colleague, Lando Norris, will start 5th just ahead of Alpha Tauri’s Pierre Gasly, both of whom will be pleased to beat their respective teammates.
The championship leader, Sir Lewis Hamilton, endured a very poor session today as he struggled to put in a clean and competitive lap in Q3, clipping the wall coming out of the Fairmont hairpin to only secure 7th.The 7 times world champion will be very disappointed to give up such vital ground to his championship rivals at a track where qualifying has an even greater significance than usual. Sebastian Vettel, on the other hand, will be very pleased to qualify 8th ahead of his Aston Martin teammate.
He too will be dissatisfied with today’s showing – being significantly slower than Verstappen. Antonio Giovinazzi rounds out the top 10 with an exceptional performance today, outperforming both his Alfa Romeo and his older teammate Kimi Raikkonen.
Esteban Ocon narrowly missed out on Q3 but will be happy to have beaten his older teammate to start in 11th tomorrow. The big shock of Q2 was the elimination of Daniel Ricciardo. Being a previous pole-sitter and winner here, the Australian will be extremely upset to only qualify 12th – considerably behind his British teammate. Lance Stroll will start in 13th after losing out to Ricciardo by a measly 2 thousandths of a second. Kimi Raikkonen qualified 14th just ahead of George Russell who yet again outshone his Williams to make it to Q2.
The young superstar of Yuki Tsunoda will be frustrated with his showing today as he lines up 16th on tomorrow’s grid for Alpha Tauri. The Japanese driver’s disappointment will be nothing, however, compared with that of Fernando Alonso. Qualifying 7th on his last visit to Monaco, today’s 17th will feel like a huge missed opportunity. Nicholas Latifi will start 18th for his first visit to Monaco – just ahead of the Haas pairing of Nikita Mazepin and Mick Schumacher. It’s worth noting, however, that Schumacher did not compete in qualifying following a crash in free practice 2.
Be sure to not miss any of the action tomorrow as lights go out for the Monaco Grand Prix. Will Leclerc be able to turn his pole into a win? Or will someone else take his crown at home?
Check out our Formula One weekend preview, here.
Comments