Charles Leclerc took pole position for the Monaco Grand Prix for the third time in his career, beating Oscar Piastri by 1500ths of a second as championship leader Max Verstappen's hopes of back-to-back poles in the principality were ended by a brush with the wall at the end of Q3.
Local hero Leclerc went into qualifying having been fastest in FP2 and FP3 and though Ferrari driver said that he had not felt as confident in the opening session of qualifying the Monegasque delivered in Q3, taking provisional pole with his first run and then improving to 1:10.270 to take pole 0.154s ahead of Piastri.
“The feeling after a qualifying lap is always very special here and I’m really happy about the lap,” said Leclrc afterwards. “I know more often than not in the past, qualifying is not everything. As much as it helps a lot for Sunday's race, we need to put everything together coming Sunday. And in the past years, we didn't manage to do so. But we are a stronger team. We are in a stronger position. And I'm sure we can achieve great things tomorrow. And obviously, the win is the target.”
Piastri impressed with his second front row qualifying spot in succession, while Sainz improved throughout to take a third place the Spaniard felt was out of reach earlier in the weekend.
“It was an improvement for me. I've been struggling all weekend with confidence and feeling with the car. So overall, to step it up and be P3 was a step forward. Obviously not entirely happy because I wish I could have been fighting for pole position. But the truth is that Charles has been doing an outstanding job. The car has been amazing all this weekend and he managed to extract the most out of it.”
After the first runs of Q3 Verstappen held third place, just over a tenths of a second off Leclerc’s provisional pole time but on his final lap of the session he clattered the barrier on exit at Sainte Devote and immediately aborted his lap. He qualified sixth.
Lando Norris took fourth place for McLaren ahead of Mercedes’ George Russell, while Russell’s team-mate Lewis Hamilton finished seventh ahead of RB’s impressive Yuki Tsunoda and Williams’ Alex Albon. The top 10 shootout order was completed by Alpine’s Pierre Gasly.
Gasly’s final flying lap of Q2 bounced Alpine team-mate Esteban Ocon out of the final session, with the Ocon exiting the middle session ahead of Haas’ Nico Hülkenberg, RB’s Daniel Ricciardo, Aston Martin’s Lance Stroll, and the second Haas’ of Kevin Magnussen.
Fernando Alonso and Sergio Perez were the biggest casualties of the opening segment. Alonso dropped out in P16 ahead of Williams’ Logan Sargeant. Pérez looked ill at ease throughout and after failing to put together a strong lap at any stage in the session he exited in P18 ahead of Sauber pair Valtteri Bottas and Zhou Guanyu.
2024 FIA Formula 1 Monaco Grand Prix – Qualifying
1 Charles Leclerc Ferrari 1:10.270
2 Oscar Piastri McLaren/Mercedes 1:10.424 0.154
3 Carlos Sainz Ferrari 1:10.518 0.248
4 Lando Norris McLaren/Mercedes 1:10.542 0.272
5 George Russell Mercedes 1:10.543 0.273
6 Max Verstappen Red Bull/Honda RBPT 1:10.567 0.297
7 Lewis Hamilton Mercedes 1:10.621 0.351
8 Yuki Tsunoda RB/Honda RBPT 1:10.858 0.588
9 Alexander Albon Williams/Mercedes 1:10.948 0.678
10 Pierre Gasly Alpine/Renault 1:11.311 1.041
11 Esteban Ocon Alpine/Renault 1:11.285 1.015
12 Nico Hülkenberg Haas/Ferrari 1:11.440 1.170
13 Daniel Ricciardo RB/Honda RBPT 1:11.482 1.212
14 Lance Stroll Aston Martin/Mercedes 1:11.563 1.293
15 Kevin Magnussen Haas/Ferrari 1:11.725 1.455
16 Fernando Alonso Aston Martin/Mercedes 1:12.019 1.749
17 Logan Sargeant Williams/Mercedes 1:12.020 1.750
18 Sergio Pérez Red Bull/Honda RBPT 1:12.060 1.790
19 Valtteri Bottas Sauber/Ferrari 1:12.512 2.242
20 Zhou Guanyu Sauber/Ferrari 1:13.028 2.758
