Antonelli seals Monaco pole position, fending off fierce Verstappen challenge
This year's Monaco qualifying saw very few accidents but it was all the more spectacular with Antonelli narrowly securing yet another pole position. Max Verstappen surprised himself and his team to take second place on tomorrow's grid while Lewis Hamilton is set to start from third.
Qualifying for the Monaco Grand Prix, usually a highpoint of the Formula One season and arguable the most important session of the Monaco race weekend kicked off with Sergio Perez taking to the track first for Cadillac, followed by Ollie Bearman in the Haas, immediately joining the action after his mechanics feverishly worked to repair his car after a late crash in FP3.
As soon as they could everybody joined the track, leaving a gap with the car ahead, but following the queue out of the pitlane. Traffic is always a problem at Monaco, and this season, 22 cars potentially means even more headache for drivers and stewards.
Norris was the first driver of the big teams to cross the line, soon relegated to second position by Leclerc. Antonelli's first lap was narrowly slower than Norris with Hamilton slotting into fourth. Bortoleto and Hulkenberg were good for 5th and 6th with their first lap, underlining strong pace showed by Audi so far this weekend.
Most kept going for more laps, no problem for the softs which actually get better over a number of initial quick laps as the Monaco circuit isn't really very taxing on tyres due to the lack of high speed corners.
With 6 minutes remaining, 18 cars were still on track. Leclerc improved repeatedly, as did Norris, the duo steady at the top of the timesheet. The Mercedes meanwhile seemed to struggle quite a bit more than during FP3 with both drivers oversteering at various points of the track.
The positions changes somewhat up front when Verstappen improved to second with Antonelli finding some pace again to go third fastest. Russell struggled more but eventually got up to 8th, right behind of Piastri.
Two and a half minutes from the end Bortoleto brushed the barrier on the inside of Nouvelle Chicane, breaking the steering arm and forced to brake hard to avoid hitting the next barrier down the road. Stopped in the middle of the track, a brief red flag stoppage was activated.
22 minutes past the starting time, the session got started again with Perez out first, 17th at that time. Many more followed him out, including Piastri and Hadjar, two drivers who were seemingly certain of getting through with 7th and 10th best times so far. Colapinto went out but missed the starting line by a few seconds so far unable to do a final flying lap.
Sainz was pretty much the only one to make a considerable improvement at the end, knowing out Ocon, eliminated together with the other Haas of Bearman, the Cadillac duo and both Aston Martins.
As Bortoleto tries to get over the disappointment, the second part of qualifying got going, this time with Antonelli immediately right on it, topping Verstappen by 0.062s. Norris was third, then Leclerc, Piastri and Hamilton. George Russell notably continued to struggle and was only 8th after the first couple of flying laps. Another attempt was faster despite several oversteer moments, but still not enough to make it beyond 8th.
30 seconds from the end Verstappen emerges on top for the first time this weekend with the best lap of the weekend so far. Hadjar crossed the line next and moved up to third as the others returned to the pits. Russell made it through in 8th, Lawson 9th and Gasly 10th. The Williams duo just missed out, along with Hulkenberg, Colapinto, Lindblad and of course Bortoleto.
The final laptimes of Q2 were particularly close, so Q3 is an unpredictable affair.
Piastri was out first and had a scruffy lap, powersliding out of nearly every corner in the final sector. Norris crossed the line next and was faster with Hamilton doing better still. Antonelli set the fastest lap half a minute later with Verstappen slotting into second, a single thousandth of a second slower. Russell and Hadjar later split the McLarens, pushing Piastri down to 7th.
Charles Leclerc on the other hand backed out of his flying lap and was 10th only and therefore out first for his second attempt.
Three minutes and three seconds before the chequered flag, Leclerc started his second attempt and was up 0.047s after the second sector. Sliding through Noghes corner he took provisional pole by 0.024 seconds.
Piastri and Norris were the next drivers but it was Verstappen who drew the spotlight with 2 tenths of an advantage in the first sector alone.
Piastri improved while Norris returned to the pits immediately. Verstappen held on to his two tenths from the first sector and took provisional pole. It was then back to Leclerc who went for yet another lap. The home hero was giving it all, even more than the lap before, but it was just a little bit too much, puncturing the right rear at Turn 10.
That left only the Mercedes with Antonelli steady throughout each sector, recording marginal improvements in each sector to take a clinical pole position once again, this time beating Verstappen by a few hundredths.
Many have tried, but in recent months, Kimi Antonelli really is the driver to beat.
