Charles Leclerc beats Oscar Piastri to take Monaco pole, Max Verstappen only sixth
Charles Leclerc beats McLaren's Oscar Piastri to claim his third pole around Monaco.
Charles Leclerc overcame a challenge from Oscar Piastri to claim pole position for his home race at the F1 Monaco Grand Prix.
Home hero Leclerc followed up his electrifying practice form and produced two laps good enough for the most important pole of the season as he edged McLaren’s Piastri to top qualifying around Monte Carlo’s famous streets by 0.154 seconds.
"It was nice. The feeling after a Qualifying lap is very special here. Really happy about the lap. The excitement is so high. It feels really good," Leclerc said after recording his third pole in Monaco.
"However, now I know more often than not in the past, that Qualifying is not everything.
"As much as it helps, we need to put everything together for Sunday's race. In the past here we didn't manage to do so, but we are in a stronger position and we are a stronger team. I'm sure we can achieve great things tomorrow and the win is the target."
Ferrari teammate Carlos Sainz was third, just 0.248s off pole, while Lando Norris pipped Mercedes’ George Russell to fourth by 0.001s.
Reigning world champion Max Verstappen could only qualify sixth after clipping the barrier at Sainte Devote, a mistake which ruined his final flying lap and blew any hopes the Dutchman may have had of challenging for pole.
“I’ve hit the wall,” Verstappen reported over team radio. “Ah man, this car is slippery!”
Seven-time world champion Lewis Hamilton was 0.351s adrift in seventh, ahead of RB’s Yuki Tsunoda, Williams’ Alex Albon and Pierre Gasly, who impressed on his way to securing 10th in Alpine’s first Q3 appearance of the season.
Esteban Ocon could not make it two Alpines in the top-10 as he set the 11th-fastest time, ahead of Nico Hulkenberg’s Haas and RB’s Daniel Ricciardo.
Lance Stroll was 14th, with Kevin Magnussen splitting the Aston Martin duo ahead of Fernando Alonso, who failed to progress out of Q1 and was a disappointing 16th.
Williams’ Logan Sargeant took 17th, while Sergio Perez suffered a qualifying nightmare and was dumped out in Q1 for the second year in a row.
The Mexican struggled for pace throughout the opening session and set a time only good enough for 18th on the grid, ahead of the Sauber pair of Valtteri Bottas and Zhou Gunayu.
“What a joke!” a frustrated Perez bemoaned over team radio.
