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F1 Monaco Grand Prix qualifying results: Leclerc on pole

Charles Leclerc took pole position for the Monaco Grand Prix for Ferrari on Saturday, the fifth round of the 2021 Formula 1 world championship season, despite crashing in the closing moments of the session.

Charles Leclerc, Ferrari SF21

Charles Leclerc, Ferrari SF21

Glenn Dunbar / Motorsport Images

Despite his shunt, which brought qualifying to a premature end, Leclerc qualified ahead of Red Bull's Max Verstappen and Valtteri Bottas of Mercedes after the one-hour qualifying session, which is split into three segments with five cars each being knocked out in Q1 and Q2 before the top-10 shootout of Q3.

F1 Monaco GP qualifying results: Leclerc on pole from Verstappen

Cla Driver Chassis Time Gap km/h
1 Monaco Charles Leclerc Ferrari 1'10.346   170.773
2 Netherlands Max Verstappen Red Bull 1'10.576 0.230 170.216
3 Finland Valtteri Bottas Mercedes 1'10.601 0.255 170.156
4 Spain Carlos Sainz Jr. Ferrari 1'10.611 0.265 170.132
5 United Kingdom Lando Norris McLaren 1'10.620 0.274 170.110
6 France Pierre Gasly AlphaTauri 1'10.900 0.554 169.438
7 United Kingdom Lewis Hamilton Mercedes 1'11.095 0.749 168.973
8 Germany Sebastian Vettel Aston Martin 1'11.419 1.073 168.207
9 Mexico Sergio Perez Red Bull 1'11.573 1.227 167.845
10 Italy Antonio Giovinazzi Alfa Romeo 1'11.779 1.433 167.363
11 France Esteban Ocon Alpine 1'11.486 1.140 168.049
12 Australia Daniel Ricciardo McLaren 1'11.598 1.252 167.786
13 Canada Lance Stroll Aston Martin 1'11.600 1.254 167.782
14 Finland Kimi Raikkonen Alfa Romeo 1'11.642 1.296 167.683
15 United Kingdom George Russell Williams 1'11.830 1.484 167.244
16 Japan Yuki Tsunoda AlphaTauri 1'12.096 1.750 166.627
17 Spain Fernando Alonso Alpine 1'12.205 1.859 166.376
18 Canada Nicholas Latifi Williams 1'12.366 2.020 166.006
19 Russian Federation Nikita Mazepin Haas 1'12.958 2.612 164.659
20 Germany Mick Schumacher Haas      

What happened in Q1?

The first session was missing Mick Schumacher, whose Haas F1 team couldn’t repair the car in time after his big shunt at Casino Square in Free Practice 3, although he will be allowed to start the race.

Bottas produced the first meaningful P1 time, at 1m11.794s, which was soon eclipsed by Verstappen’s 1m11.552s and then Sainz’s 1m11.341s. McLaren’s Lando Norris briefly grabbed top spot with 1m11.321s, before Verstappen produced 1m11.124s.

Bottas was the first man to dip under the 1m11s barrier, lapping in 1m10.938s – which remained the fastest time of the session, 0.175s quicker than Leclerc, with Verstappen close behind in third. World championship leader Lewis Hamilton, meanwhile, was only seventh in his Mercedes.

Falling at the first hurdle were just the four cars due to Schumacher’s absence: AlphaTauri’s Yuki Tsunoda (missing Q2 by 0.018s), Alpine’s Fernando Alonso, Nicholas Latifi (who did well considering his hefty FP3 crash) and the second Haas of Nikita Mazepin.

F1 Monaco GP Q1 results: Bottas fastest from Leclerc

Cla Driver Chassis Laps Time Gap Interval km/h
1 Finland Valtteri Bottas Mercedes 9 1'10.938     169.347
2 Monaco Charles Leclerc Ferrari 10 1'11.113 0.175 0.175 168.931
3 Netherlands Max Verstappen Red Bull 7 1'11.124 0.186 0.011 168.905
4 United Kingdom Lando Norris McLaren 7 1'11.321 0.383 0.197 168.438
5 Spain Carlos Sainz Jr. Ferrari 8 1'11.324 0.386 0.003 168.431
6 France Pierre Gasly AlphaTauri 9 1'11.560 0.622 0.236 167.875
7 United Kingdom Lewis Hamilton Mercedes 14 1'11.622 0.684 0.062 167.730
8 Mexico Sergio Perez Red Bull 9 1'11.644 0.706 0.022 167.679
9 Italy Antonio Giovinazzi Alfa Romeo 11 1'11.658 0.720 0.014 167.646
10 France Esteban Ocon Alpine 12 1'11.740 0.802 0.082 167.454
11 Australia Daniel Ricciardo McLaren 12 1'11.747 0.809 0.007 167.438
12 Finland Kimi Raikkonen Alfa Romeo 11 1'11.899 0.961 0.152 167.084
13 Canada Lance Stroll Aston Martin 11 1'11.979 1.041 0.080 166.898
14 United Kingdom George Russell Williams 14 1'12.016 1.078 0.037 166.812
15 Germany Sebastian Vettel Aston Martin 10 1'12.078 1.140 0.062 166.669
16 Japan Yuki Tsunoda AlphaTauri 13 1'12.096 1.158 0.018 166.627
17 Spain Fernando Alonso Alpine 12 1'12.205 1.267 0.109 166.376
18 Canada Nicholas Latifi Williams 14 1'12.366 1.428 0.161 166.006
19 Russian Federation Nikita Mazepin Haas 12 1'12.958 2.020 0.592 164.659
20 Germany Mick Schumacher Haas 0        

What happened in Q2?

In Q2, the pole position-hunting protagonists eschewed the usual practice of running medium tyres – with all drivers sticking with the softs.

Verstappen led the way initially on 1m11.040s, which was narrowly pipped by Leclerc on 1m11.037s, before Sainz lowered the bar to 1m10.806s. On his second push lap, Verstappen produced a barrier-shaving 1m10.650s to retake the top spot.

Leclerc grabbed P1 back with a late lap of 1m10.597s, 0.053s faster than Verstappen, who fail to improve on his final run. Bottas did go faster on his final lap, getting within a tenth off the pace in third. Again, Hamilton was only P7 in this session, but did get almost two-tenths closer to the quickest time than he managed in Q1.

Knocked out at this point were Alpine’s Esteban Ocon, McLaren’s Daniel Ricciardo, Aston Martin’s Lance Stroll, Kimi Raikkonen (Alfa Romeo) and George Russell (Williams).

F1 Monaco GP Q2 results: Leclerc fastest from Verstappen

Cla Driver Chassis Laps Time Gap Interval km/h
1 Monaco Charles Leclerc Ferrari 10 1'10.597     170.165
2 Netherlands Max Verstappen Red Bull 9 1'10.650 0.053 0.053 170.038
3 Finland Valtteri Bottas Mercedes 11 1'10.695 0.098 0.045 169.929
4 Spain Carlos Sainz Jr. Ferrari 10 1'10.806 0.209 0.111 169.663
5 Mexico Sergio Perez Red Bull 10 1'11.019 0.422 0.213 169.154
6 United Kingdom Lando Norris McLaren 9 1'11.031 0.434 0.012 169.126
7 United Kingdom Lewis Hamilton Mercedes 9 1'11.116 0.519 0.085 168.924
8 France Pierre Gasly AlphaTauri 12 1'11.179 0.582 0.063 168.774
9 Germany Sebastian Vettel Aston Martin 10 1'11.309 0.712 0.130 168.466
10 Italy Antonio Giovinazzi Alfa Romeo 10 1'11.409 0.812 0.100 168.230
11 France Esteban Ocon Alpine 10 1'11.486 0.889 0.077 168.049
12 Australia Daniel Ricciardo McLaren 9 1'11.598 1.001 0.112 167.786
13 Canada Lance Stroll Aston Martin 9 1'11.600 1.003 0.002 167.782
14 Finland Kimi Raikkonen Alfa Romeo 10 1'11.642 1.045 0.042 167.683
15 United Kingdom George Russell Williams 10 1'11.830 1.233 0.188 167.244

What happened in Q3?

In the top-10 shootout, Verstappen set the bar at 1m10.576s, 0.06s faster than Bottas. Leclerc wrested P1 away with a laptime of 1m10.3456s, 0.23s faster than Verstappen.

Sainz went P3 on 1m10.611s but had that stolen away by Bottas, who went for a second push lap, on 1m10.601s, with Norris in fifth.

On the final runs, Verstappen made an error at Portier on his first lap and was forced to abort. He was up on his fastest time on his final lap when poleman Leclerc shunted heavily at the exit of the Swimming Pool, bringing out the red flags and scuppering Verstappen's pole hopes.

Bottas stayed third, ahead of Sainz, Norris, AlphaTauri’s Pierre Gasly, Hamilton (who clipped the barrier on the approach to Portier), Aston Martin’s Sebastian Vettel, Sergio Perez (whose Red Bull clipped the wall at the Swimming Pool) and Antonio Giovinazzi (Alfa Romeo).

F1 Monaco GP Q3 results: Leclerc takes pole

Cla Driver Chassis Laps Time Gap Interval km/h
1 Monaco Charles Leclerc Ferrari 7 1'10.346     170.773
2 Netherlands Max Verstappen Red Bull 7 1'10.576 0.230 0.230 170.216
3 Finland Valtteri Bottas Mercedes 8 1'10.601 0.255 0.025 170.156
4 Spain Carlos Sainz Jr. Ferrari 7 1'10.611 0.265 0.010 170.132
5 United Kingdom Lando Norris McLaren 7 1'10.620 0.274 0.009 170.110
6 France Pierre Gasly AlphaTauri 9 1'10.900 0.554 0.280 169.438
7 United Kingdom Lewis Hamilton Mercedes 7 1'11.095 0.749 0.195 168.973
8 Germany Sebastian Vettel Aston Martin 6 1'11.419 1.073 0.324 168.207
9 Mexico Sergio Perez Red Bull 7 1'11.573 1.227 0.154 167.845
10 Italy Antonio Giovinazzi Alfa Romeo 7 1'11.779 1.433 0.206 167.363

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