Leclerc on pole at home race despite crash

Charles Leclerc qualified on pole position for tomorrow’s Monaco Grand Prix, despite crashing late on in Q3.

The Monegasque driver was already at the time of the timesheets when he was pushing to improve, clipping the barrier and breaking his steering before colliding with the barrier at the next corner.

It mean Max Verstappen and Valtteri Bottas, who both looked to be setting fast times towards the end of the session, were unable to improve, as proceedings were red flagged.

Bottas’s teammate, current champion Lewis Hamilton, starts back on the fourth row, having been unable to match the pace at the front of the grid.

Hamilton appeared to lightly brush the barriers while on a charge, while Sergio Perez also struggled, having found himself in traffic on his flying lap.

Just 19 cars took to the track for qualifying as Mick Schumacher had a heavy crash late on in the final practice session, leaving his mechanics with too much to repair between sessions.

Williams also had to work in the break between FP3 and qualifying to repair Nicholas Latifi’s car, as the Canadian had a brush with the barrier in the morning. The team were able to fixed the car, but Latifi couldn’t match teammate George Russell’s pace, leaving him the bottom five.

The surprise casualty in Q1 though was Fernando Alonso, as the two-time champion struggled to get the best out of his tyres around the principality, leaving him towards the back of the grid for tomorrow’s race.

Daniel Ricciardo and Kimi Raikkonen both missed out on the chance to make it through to the final part of qualifying after missing the chequered flag at the end of Q2, leaving them unable to have one final go at setting a faster time.

Both of their teammates progressed though, with seven different teams making up the top 10.

Provisional qualifying result:

1 Charles Leclerc (Ferrari)

2. Max Verstappen (Red Bull)

3. Valtteri Bottas (Mercedes)

4. Carlos Sainz (Ferrari)

5. Lando Norris (McLaren)

6. Pierre Gasly (AlphaTauri)

7. Lewis Hamilton (Mercedes)

8. Sebastian Vettel (Aston Martin)

9. Sergio Perez (Red Bull)

10. Antonio Giovinazzi (Alfa Romeo)

11. Esteban Ocon (Alpine)

12. Daniel Ricciardo (McLaren)

13. Lance Stroll (Aston Martin)

14. Kimi Raikkonen (Alfa Romeo)

15. George Russell (Williams)

16. Yuki Tsunoda (AlphaTauri)

17. Fernando Alonso (Alpine)

18. Nicholas Latifi (Williams)

19. Nikita Mazepin (Haas)

20. Mick Schumacher (Haas)