Monaco Grand Prix – Qualifying: Leclerc takes pole position at home

If there is one qualifying session that all drivers want to succeed in, it’s Monaco. Indeed, the nature of this urban track, with very few straight lines, makes overtaking extremely complicated. The starting position is often the finishing position as a result.

Q1:

This first part of the qualifications is often the most complicated to manage. Indeed, there are 20 very wide single-seaters sharing this narrow track of only 3.3 KM. It is therefore critical to know how to manage the traffic well in order to execute a good lap.

Sergio Perez was showing a very good pace at the beginning of the session by setting a 1’13’292 lap time, which put him at the top of the timesheet. The Mexican’s time was matched by Carlos Sainz. Both drivers were within the same thousandth of a second. However, their time was beaten by Charles Leclerc’s 1’12’939.

With 2 minutes remaining, a red flag was caused by Yuki Tsunoda. The Japanese driver hit his left front wheel at the entry of the chicane after the tunnel. This impact tore off his rim. The AlphaTauri driver was only in 19th position at the moment of the impact. The good work of the engineers from the Italian team allowed Tsunoda to get back on track. This trapped Pierre Gasly who didn’t have time to finish his lap and was eliminated in Q1.

On the other hand, Esteban Ocon and Lando Norris had a good performance as they managed to escape from the danger zone and qualify respectively in 4th and 5th place.

Eliminated list: Zhou Guanyu (20th), Nicholas Latifi (19th), Lance Stroll (18th), Pierre Gasly (17th), and Alexander Albon (16th).

Q2:

Like during Q1, it was Sergio Perez who was the fastest at the beginning of the session. The Mexican driver clocked a time of 1’12.059. He was closely followed by the two Ferraris. Carlos Sainz was 15 hundredths of a second behind, and Charles Leclerc was 33 hundredths behind. The other Red Bull, driven by Max Verstappen, was a bit further back in 4th position, 5 tenths of a second off Perez’s lap time.

It’s finally Charles Leclerc who set the fastest lap time with a 1’11’864. 90 milliseconds ahead of Sergio Perez’s time. Since the beginning of the weekend, only a few milliseconds separate the two teams at the top of the constructor championship.

While Lando Norris qualified in a brilliant 5th position, his garage neighbor, Daniel Ricciardo, couldn’t do better than 14th position. The comparison is painful for the Australian who was counting on one of his favorite circuits to show his employer that he was still in the game.

Alpine had a very good qualifying session by placing both of its cars in Q3. Esteban Ocon managed to set the 6th fastest time, while Fernando Alonso achieved the 10th position.

List of eliminations: Mick Schumacher (15th), Daniel Ricciardo (14th), Kevin Magnussen (13th), Valtteri Bottas (12th), and Yuki Tsunoda (11th).

Q3:

It was thanks to an amazing lap that Charles Leclerc recorded the best lap of the beginning of Q3, placing him in provisional pole position. With a time of 1’11’376, this lap by the Monegasque was directly 5 tenths faster than his best lap in Q2. His teammate, Carlos Sainz, was two tenths behind.

Disaster struck in the final moments of the session! At the entrance of the tunnel, Sergio Perez lost control of his car, spinning out and crashing into the barriers. Carlos Sainz, who was right behind him, was thrown off by the position of the Red Bull and ended up colliding with Perez’s car. The question now for these two drivers is whether repairs will be necessary for tomorrow’s race. This incident caused a traffic jam, forcing the officials to wave the red flag, thereby preventing all the drivers from completing their laps. Even Charles Leclerc, who was then three tenths ahead of his best lap, was affected.

Charles Leclerc will start first on the grid tomorrow. He will be followed by his teammate on the front row. The second row is occupied by the two Red Bulls.