Hartley ‘pissed off’ by Monaco GP Q1 exit  

Brendon Hartley says he is “pissed off” an early elimination from Monaco Grand Prix qualifying stopped him from challenging for a first-ever Q3 appearance in Formula 1. 

The Toro Rosso driver endured a frustrating qualifying session in Monte Carlo as he ended up 16th and failed to progress to the second segment after encountering yellow flags and traffic on his final run. 

While Hartley suffered a disappointing early exit, teammate Pierre Gasly made it into the top 10 shoot-out and will start Sunday’s race from 10th on the grid. 

“I’m not going to deny that I’m upset we didn’t get it together for Q1 - very disappointed because we’ve been strong all weekend. Especially this morning, it looked really promising,” Hartley said.

“I wasn’t as happy with the balance. I had to abort my last lap on the first run, I had traffic in the last sector on my first run. I had one relatively clean lap, even still traffic coming out the pits. I wasn’t that comfortable, and I didn’t get another shot at it.

“I’m disappointed I didn’t get the chance to fight in Q2. I know it’s Monaco, It’s pretty brutal here and you have to have a bit of luck on your side in Q1, especially when all of the cars are on-track. It wasn’t my day today. Pissed off.”

But Hartley, who denied his Toro Rosso seat is under threat following recent errors, insists he has taken a confidence boost from his performance so far in Monaco, having impressed on his way to the seventh-fastest time in final practice. 

A repeat of that time would have seen the New Zealander sail through to Q2 and Hartley is convinced he could have gone even better and made it into the final part of qualifying. 

“It’s been a strong weekend from the word go,” he explained. “We’ve made good progress with all of the tools that we had. We haven’t made too many changes on the car. We arrived here with a decent car, we did our simulation and our homework. 

“I felt really strong and confident. I’m sitting here disappointed we didn’t get through to Q2 because I definitely would have had a chance to fight for Q3 as well.”

Hartley is set to start from 15th on the grid once Romain Grojean’s three-place penalty is applied after the Haas driver caused a multi-car accident on the opening lap of the Spanish Grand Prix.