Antonelli edges Verstappen in epic Monaco GP qualifying shootout

Kimi Antonelli will start the Monaco Grand Prix from pole position after home favorite Charles Leclerc clipped the barrier trying to best him at the end of the session.

Leclerc’s Q3 was scrappy, with a big slide through Massenet forcing him to abandon his first lap and fuel for two push laps in the final minutes of the session. His reply was blistering, putting him at the top of the table ahead of Antonelli and Max Verstappen, the trio separated by just 0.025s as they embarked on their final laps.

Verstappen was first among them in the order, and the Dutchman rotated into top spot with a purple first sector, but Antonelli had more in reserve. Despite setting no purple sectors, three personal best splits returned him to the top of the time sheet by just 0.043s with a best time of 1m12.051s.

Leclerc, however, had the right of final reply, and he matched Antonelli in the first sector, putting him on course to challenge for top spot – but then his lap came undone at Tabac, where a snap of oversteer sent him sliding into the outside barrier, giving it a hefty whack with his right-rear tire. Defeated, he limped to the next run-off zone to park his damaged car.

Antonelli’s first Monaco pole position and his fourth pole from the last five grands prix.

“It was one of those laps that we call the magic lap,” he said. “I was able to put it all together, and it was such a close qualifying with Max. Massive thanks to the team, because yesterday we struggled a little bit, and today we were able to improve massively.

“I’m just enjoying the driving, enjoying the car, enjoying the weekend. That is a big step compared to last year. It’s really nice to be able to enjoy the sessions. Looking forward to tomorrow.”

Verstappen was similarly surprised to have contended for pole after looking a step adrift on Friday, albeit to Ferrari rather than Mercedes.

“If you would have told me yesterday I would be on the front row, I would definitely have taken it,” he said. “Heading into qualifying, being up there was extremely positive.

“I’m happy to be on the front row. Tomorrow – let’s see in the start; these cars are quite complicated to start, and I have two [Ferrari] cars behind me that start quite well, but we’ll see.”

Lewis Hamilton (pictured above congratulating Antonelli) headed an all-Ferrari second row, his second lap getting him to within 0.228s of pole position, but the Briton lamented that his Ferrari’s Friday pace evaporated on Saturday.

“Tough for us,” he said. “We were looking so strong in practice and we barely changed anything, but the car was drastically different once we got to qualifying for some reason, so we have to take a deep dive into that.

“I think we lost something going into today, and that’s what we need to try to figure out.”

Leclerc was 0.3s off the pace without his second lap to complete the second row, though his car will require repairs ahead of the race.

Isack Hadjar recovered from a tough Friday to qualify fifth ahead of George Russell, who never looked like a credible pole contender on his way to sixth and 0.394s off the pace.

McLaren flirted with top spot early but eventually faded to where the team feared it would be at the end of Friday. Oscar Piastri led the way in seventh but was 0.573s off the pace, while Lando Norris was one spot and 0.141s further back after abandoning his final lap.

Pierre Gasly returned to Q3 in ninth place for Alpine ahead of Liam Lawson’s first top-10 qualification since the season-opening Australian Grand Prix for Racing Bulls.

Williams teammates Alex Albon and Carlos Sainz will line up 11th and 12th, their best grand prix qualifying results of the season. Albon was just 0.025s short of a spot in the pole shootout after unsettling his car over the curbs through the Swimming Pool chicanes.

Nico Hulkenberg qualified 13th – the German’s Audi team will be disappointed to have turned a trio of double top-10 practice appearances into a double Q2 knockout – ahead of Franco Colapinto in 14th and Arvid Lindblad in 15th, the Racing Bulls rookie 0.777s slower than Q3-bound teammate Lawson.

Gabriel Bortoleto will line up 16th after crashing out of Q1. The Brazilian tagged the apex barrier turning into the chicane out of the tunnel, breaking his front-left suspension.

Bortoleto managed to stop his car without significant additional damage, but he was forced to leave the stricken machine in the middle of the road at the chicane, forcing a red flag with just over 2m remaining in Q1. The Audi driver was 14th on the leaderboard as the session resumed, but he was demoted only one place in the subsequent flurry of activity, allowing him to progress into Q2, albeit without the possibility of setting a time and therefore leaving him 16th by default.

Esteban Ocon missed out on a spot in Q2 by just 0.037s, dumped down to 17th by a late-improving Sainz, the only driver to improve their position following Bortoleto’s red flag.

Sergio Perez continued his good form this weekend to split the Haas drivers, qualifying 18th ahead of Oliver Bearman, his Haas car frantically repaired after the Englishman’s crash late in FP3.

Valtteri Bottas qualified 20th, half a second behind teammate Perez but still ahead of struggling Aston Martin teammates, with Fernando Alonso 0.664s outside the Q2 cut-off in 21st – his worst qualifying performance in 22 Monaco appearances bar 2010, when he failed to set a time – and Lance Stroll, who was last and a further 0.712s adrift for the team’s second back-row lockout of the season.

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