Qualifying has just finished on the Montecarlo circuit, the shortest track on the calendar. Here starting up front is essential, there are few points where overtaking is possible. After the last free session the Red Bull brace seemed obvious. However, qualifying in Monaco is unpredictable, the guardrails are kissed at every corner and only one finds the perfect lap.
Q1: Perez at the wall
The first attempt starts for everyone with the red rubber, with the rubberized track from F2 sprint race.
First big twist, 11 minutes from the end of Q1, causing a red flag, Perez, who had won here last year, ends up against a wall in turn 1. Big side hit that could have consequences for tomorrow's race, with possible damage to the gearbox and clear damage to the floor. The session ends in a heart-pounding fashion, from the first to the last a gap of one second and one, excluded Sergeant who will start sixteenth, disfigures in comparison with his teammate who scores the third time behind Tsunoda and Verstappen, the two also out Haas, which will start from the seventeenth square with Magnussen and from the eighteenth with Hulkenberg. Guanyu will start nineteenth Zhou, twentieth, due to accident he will leave Perez.
Q2: Little contact for Norris, unexpectedly out Stroll with the AM
The second qualifying session is quieter, with Alonso continuing to annoy Verstappen, he is hunting for pole. Small blow to the tobacconist for Norris who damages his left front arm two minutes from the end with a contact with the guardrail, returns slowly to the pits, but still manages to pass the cut in tenth position. More unfortunate was his teammate who missed Q10 just 2s away. Excluding in order Piastri, Devries, Albon, Stroll (with his teammate in virtual third place) and Bottas.
Q3: All or nothing for Verstappen
Creepy first attempt, Verstappen finished the lap first in 1.12.102, followed by Alonso who stripped him almost 4 tenths faster. The two redheads who finish second with Sainz and third with Leclerc 50 thousandths from pole make them dream. But the last attempt is still missing and the track improves from lap to lap. Great work at home Mclaren meanwhile he manages to get Norris' number 4 onto the track, despite the contact in Q2.
The track lights up in the last 3 minutes, lap after lap, four of them are fighting for pole, Alonso, Leclerc, Verstappen, even Ocon in first place for a few seconds. However, the Red Bull was unbeatable, with the only bull left on the track, down by two tenths until the last corners, Max literally gave everything, grazing the wall in two points. “ALL-IN” the Dutchman must have said, perhaps inspired by the casino on turn four.
The first pole in Montecarlo for Verstappen in 1.11.365 is breathtaking.
Alonso closes the front row, followed by Leclerc in third place. Ocon will start fourth, Sainz fifth, Hamilton sixth and behind Gasly, Russell, Tsunoda and Norris in tenth.
