Charles Leclerc rescues Formula 1 from Max Verstappen’s Saturday dominance. The Ferrari driver takes the first pole of his season, and his third in Monaco. Although McLaren driver Oscar Piastri in particular put up a tough fight in the final, while Max Verstappen, who had been in the fight for pole for a long time, messed up on the last Q3 attempt. But he fared much better than Fernando Alonso and Sergio Perez.
The result: Leclerc needed until Q3 to get going, and it was only on his second Q3 attempt that he managed to pull ahead of Piastri by 0.154 seconds. Carlos Sainz and Lando Norris also came alive in qualifying, but George Russell missed out on the second row by just a thousandth of a second. Verstappen, who hit the wall on his final Q3 run, was stuck in P6.
Two top drivers suffered a total failure. Both Sergio Perez and Fernando Alonso were disappointingly stuck in Q1. Alpine, however, was able to celebrate, with Pierre Gasly making it into Q3 for the first time. Williams was also able to celebrate with Alex Albon in ninth place, while Nico Hülkenberg (P12) and Kevin Magnussen (P15) did not make it past Q2. Yuki Tsunoda impressed again with P8 as the best driver in the chasing field.
Q1 in Monaco: Perez & Alonso are eliminated!
Two top drivers experienced a complete disaster in the first 18 minutes of qualifying. Sergio Perez struggled from the start and just couldn’t get out of his shell. Until it was too late. He retired without a fight in P18, more than half a second behind the leaders. Only the two completely desolate Sauber cars of Valtteri Bottas (P19) and Guanyu Zhou (P20) were (quite a bit) worse.
With Perez, Logan Sargeant, a typical Q1 stumper, left the field in P17. But so did one of the favorites for the top spots, namely Fernando Alonso, who started from the front row last year. He narrowly hung on in 16th place, while Esteban Ocon, Nico Hülkenberg and Yuki Tsunoda narrowly made it into Q2.
Q1 was also almost a disaster for Charles Leclerc and Lando Norris. Both picked up advertising banners that had been torn from the guard rails somewhere on the track. Leclerc was lucky, it happened halfway through the session. This meant he easily managed to finish in fifth place. Things got tricky for Norris because he picked up a large banner in the last few minutes after changing to the second new set of soft tires. He had to stop again and just managed to avoid retirement on his last lap. He finished ninth.
Almost all drivers had already unpacked two sets of soft tires in Q1. Only Max Verstappen and Charles Leclerc drove the entire session with one. The stewards scheduled an investigation for after qualifying. An obstruction incident involving Carlos Sainz and Alex Albon in the second swimming pool part.
| Qualifying – Session 1 | |
| Incidents: | Leclerc & Norris catch advertising banners Investigation Albon/Sainz |
| eliminated: | 16. Alonso – 17. Sargeant – 18. Perez – 19. Bottas – 20. Zhou |
| Top 5: | 1. Russell – 2. Piastri – 3. Hamilton – 4. Sainz – 5. Leclerc |
Q2 in Monaco: Suddenly McLaren turns up the heat
This time without advertising banners, McLaren did much better in the second qualifying segment. Lando Norris beat Max Verstappen by 13 thousandths in the final sprint and took the best time. The second McLaren of Oscar Piastri followed just 11 thousandths behind, followed by Charles Leclerc, who still didn’t really get going.
There was a surprise in fifth place. Pierre Gasly redeemed Alpine with a really strong performance, even leaving the two Mercedes and Carlos Sainz behind. However, Russell and Hamilton had driven the second run with used tires in order to save a second set of soft tires for Q3. Yuki Tsunoda and Alex Albon completed the Q3 field, while Esteban Ocon, Nico Hülkenberg, Daniel Ricciardo, Lance Stroll and Kevin Magnussen remained stuck in what was still an extremely tight field.
There was another incident that is still being investigated: This time it was against Nico Hülkenberg, who was in Esteban Ocon’s way in front of the casino early in Q2.
| Qualifying – Session 2 | |
| Incidents: | Hülkenberg/Ocon investigation |
| eliminated: | 11. Ocon – 12. Hulkenberg – 13. Ricciardo – 14. Stroll – 15. Magnussen |
| Top 5: | 1. Norris – 2. Verstappen – 3. Piastri – 4. Leclerc – 5. Gasly |
Q3 in Monaco: Leclerc too fast, Verstappen badly beaten
After the unremarkable first two segments, Leclerc was really there for the first time in the first Q3 attempt. However, it started as a thousandths thriller. Piastri was only 26 thousandths behind Leclerc. Verstappen was the fastest in the first sector, but he lost too much at the end, complaining particularly about the handling in Mirabeau and in the harbor chicane. He was 0.123 seconds behind. Norris was missing in the first exchange of blows because he only had one new tire left and saved it for the second attempt.
Leclerc went one better in his second attempt, and the 1:10.270 was too big a task for Piastri. He had a bad time in the middle sector, and ended up missing 0.154 seconds. Sainz, Norris and Russell pushed Max Verstappen into sixth place. The Red Bull touched the wall on the decisive attempt at the exit of Ste. Devote after skidding sideways.
Lewis Hamilton finished behind Verstappen. The chasing pack was led by Yuki Tsunoda, who had only just managed to beat Alex Albon. Pierre Gasly finished well behind in P10.
| Qualifying – Session 3 | |
| Incidents: | Verstappen kisses wall on last attempt |
| Top 5: | 1. Leclerc – 2. Piastri – 3. Sainz – 4. Norris – 5. Russell |
The weather: The probability of rain had steadily decreased over the last few days, and when qualifying began, the rain that had been feared at the start of the week was finally gone. Instead, the track temperature was a hot 48 degrees, with sunshine and an air temperature of 21 degrees – significantly warmer than on Friday.