F1 Monaco GP live commentary and updates - Qualifying

F1 projecting the cut-off time as 1m14.5s. That is somewhere between Lawson and Colapinto in P12 and P13 as things stand – Lawson has done 1m14.498s, Colapinto 1m14.573s.

Colapinto has been unable to force his way into the line of traffic so he's going to be under a lot of pressure. The car very much not letting him in is Albon's Williams - no surprise there given teammate Sainz needs to get out of the drop zone.

Those drivers in the late 14s will be concerned right now – here's looking at you Franco Colapinto, Arvid Lindblad and Esteban Ocon.

Two minutes 11 seconds remaining on the clock.

To be fair, of course, four of those drivers are well acquainted with the process of packing their bags after Q1. It's Bearman and Sainz who will be sweating.

Peril now for those facing expulsion in Q1: Perez, Bearman, Sainz, Bottas, Alonso, Stroll.

Hulkenberg does a tidy lap of personal bests, 1m13.923s is good for P6 ahead of Piastri.

Russell does a 1m14.214s which will probably be enough for him to avoid elimination, but only good for P7 for now.

Cracking lap for Verstappen: 1m13.490s. That's faster even than Antonelli.

Fascinating. Leclerc finds more time – 1m13.293 – but was only purple in the middle sector and he was slower than before in the other two.

Leclerc's 1m13.399s remains the fastest time so far.

Antonelli pops in a 1m13.946s but his third sector was nothing to write home about. Replays show Russell quelling an oversteer moment at Mirabeau, which will explain why his lap was a modest 1m14.857s.

Russell very much in need of a clear lap. Only P17 on 1m15.732s for now, but he'd building a push lap – personal best in sector one but not purple.

Norris now fastest on 1m13.796s but Leclerc immediately surpasses him to the tune of 0.397s. Times tumbling courtesy of track evolution and growing tyre temperatures.

Verstappen goes around in 1m14.504s, which is P5 for now. He had to navigate a ridiculous amount of traffic towards the end of his lap.

Leclerc fastest of the early runners with 1m14.141s, 0.154s quicker than Norris with Antonelli third on 1m14.313s.

Verstappen has bailed out of his first push lap and is going again...

Hadjar having a hissy fit about tyre prep on the radio and he hasn't even set a timed lap yet.

Bearman, in his freshly repaired Haas, deposes Perez with a 1m15.936s but then Liam Lawson goes 0.459s faster than that. Much more to come, of course.

Sergio Perez currently top of the timesheets. "STOP THE COUNT!"

Hamilton complaining that Leclerc is "backing into me". A clear sign of nerves around the traffic situation.

This will also be a session for those who wish to play the Kardashian drinking game. Two fingers of the beverage of your choice every time one of the dynasty appears on screen.

Another wrinkle is that drivers are likely to be carrying a bit more fuel margin, just in case traffic forces them to bail out of a push lap. But every extra bit of fuel costs lap time in what is a game of fine margins...

...except at the very front, that is, where Mercedes found a fair chunk of time this morning and the top five or six cars had half a second or more in hand over the best of the rest.

Managing the warm-up of the tyres here is going to be critical, and difficult because of traffic. Drivers will have to start pushing around the tunnel area because if the tyres aren't already in the ballpark by the time they reach the swimming pool, they run the risk of emulating Isack Hadjar's slide into the barrier yesterday when his rear axle gave up the ghost.

Then at the end of the lap they really need to not hit traffic, else those tyre temperatures will bleed away at the crucial moment.

And of course, with 22 cars on track for the first time since 2014, traffic is going to be a big factor in Q1 - and arguably remain so.

We're also informed that the Pirelli pole position trophy will be awarded by the athlete Eileen Gu. 

The tyre scenario will be interesting today because the compounds are step harder this year, even though they are the three softest in Pirelli's range.

"Eh?" some will be asking.

Well, last season Monaco was one of the races where Pirelli brought its experimental C6 tyre compound, which has since been abandoned. So the C5, which was the medium in 2025, is now the soft.

Feedback from Pirelli overnight was that graining wasn't a problem on the soft so it was likely drivers would be able to do two push laps in qualifying. But also the track is evolving very quickly so the action is likely to be concentrated into a few high-stakes moments at the end of each quali segment.

GET READY FOR QUALIFYING

And the sun continues to shine over the principality as the qualifying hour approaches. In case you missed it, Mercedes and Kimi Antonelli delivered something of an upset in FP3 earlier today, convincingly overturning what had been a developing picture of Ferrari superiority.