MONACO GP – Charles Leclerc takes pole as Carlos Sainz and Sergio Perez make the same error and crash at Portier in dying moments of Q3
Charles Leclerc has beaten his teammate Carlos Sainz by two-tenths of a second to take pole position for the Monaco Grand Prix. The Monacan set an 11.376 putting him ahead of Sainz as qualifying drew to a close when the Spaniard crashed into third place Sergio Perez as they both lost the rear moments apart through Portier bringing out the red flag.
The rear of the cars both slide out from Sainz and Perez blocking the track, The Mexican was first into the wall seconds before the Ferrari driver made the same mistake bringing the session to an end. Sainz was two-hundredths of a second faster than the Mexican to give Ferrari a front-row lockout in Monte Carlo.
The incidents at Portier prevented anyone else from improving as Leclerc looked on course to go faster and sealed the end of Q3 with less than a minute to go. Leclerc has been on form all weekend in Monaco, topping two out of three practice sessions and every qualifying segment.
Leclerc failed to start from pole last year after he crashed at the end of qualifying and damaged the car. His bounce back from last year saw him look unstoppable topping every segment of qualifying and looking to go even faster on his final attempt. Meaning it looked unlikely he could have been beaten.
However this year he has appeared to bounce back and put his difficult relationship with Monte Carlo behind him, he was two tenths faster than his championship rival Max Verstappen who was fourth. Leclerc still needs to finish, despite his talent he has never finished a race in any category in the principality.
The Dutchman looked on course to improve on his final lap, but in the first sector, he was a tenth down, then had to abort the lap because of the red flag. Verstappen himself also struggling to be that bit further ahead than Perez, who looked to be the driver to beat.
Sainz was clearly frustrated by the lack of yellow flags as he was forced to slam on the brakes. It sets pending damage to Sainz and Perez, up for a race where Leclerc could go onto dominate having taken a fine win last weekend in Barcelona, as well as become the first Monacan to win the race since 1931.
Leclerc said “It is very special. I am so incredibly happy. It has been a very smooth weekend until now. I knew the pace was in the car and I just had to do the job, it went perfect. The car felt amazing and it’s great to have Carlos with me on the front row.”
Sainz added “I was on my flying lap and I saw the yellow flag, just come in into Turn 8, and I had to hit the brakes to avoid [Perez] the best I could. It’s a shame. Another year were a red flag cost us the end of a session and we could not go for pole position – but it’s typical Monaco.”
For the second year in a row Leclerc’s pole position was secured by red flags, this time however it was Sainz in the wall, but he had shown pace throughout the session and it always looked as if it was the Monacan’s pole to lose going into Q3. But the red flag prevented him from what was shaping up to be an outright lap record, with him four tenths up.
Lando Norris put his McLaren fifth going three and a half tenths ahead of George Russell’s Mercedes. Both drivers squeaked in those times before the red flag, and that was to their advantage as others could have challenged.
Russell looked once again to be the Mercedes driver who could extract the most from the car, which put him a tenth ahead of Fernando Alonso was seventh. In an unseen incident while the focus was on Portier the two-time champion crashed his Alpine at Mirabeau, as the session was red-flagged.
Mercedes expected to be around fifth and sixth, Russell hooked up a brilliant lap to outqualify Hamilton for the fifth time in a row ‘Mr Saturday’ as he known leads Hamilton seven two in qualifying.
Lewis Hamilton was four-tenths behind his teammate in eighth, the seven-time champion was just starting his lap when the red flag came out. Sebastian Vettel and Esteban Ocon were also caught out by the red flag, the Aston Martin driver nearly two tenths behind Hamilton.
Yuki Tsunoda was unable to improve on his final lap going eleventh just over a tenth faster than Valtteri Bottas who improved on his last lap. The Alpha Tauri driver avoiding damage and recovered his car to the put after hitting the wall at the Grand Hotel Hairpin, gaining a puncher and bringing out the red flag.
Though it appeared to be an overreaction as the Japanese driver recovered without major damage, but it prevented his teammate Pierre Gasly from improving and meant the Frenchman was a shock elimination in Q1.
Both Haas’s managed to improve as well, Kevin Magnussen going two hundredths behind the Finn, while Mick Schumacher was a tenth behind Daniel Ricciardo as they finished bottom in Q2.
Alex Albon was fastest of those knocked out in Q1, the Williams driver first back out after the red flag, while he improved out of the drop zone, as Tsunoda and the two McLaren’s improved. Behind Gasly was a frustrated Lance Stroll who was almost two hundredths behind, with Nicolas Latifi nineteenth and Guanyu Zhou twentieth.