Monaco GP: Verstappen narrowly takes pole by 0.084s over Alonso

Red Bull’s Max Verstappen narrowly secured pole position for the Monaco Grand Prix, at the last time of asking, beating Aston Martin’s Fernando Alonso by 0.084 seconds.

Q1

The Williams duo, of Alexander Albon and Logan Sargeant, peeled out into the pit lane to be the first drivers out on the track. Naturally, they were the first ones to set their banker laps. However, the session was soon red-flagged as Red Bull’s Sergio Perez crashed into the barrier on the exit of Sainte Devote.

Distracted by the Alpine of Pierre Gasly who moved out of the Mexican’s way, and onto the pit exit line, Perez went into the first corner too hot and found himself with a slam into the barrier. In conclusion, the left-hand side of Perez’s car was ruined with terminal suspension damage, meaning the #11 RB19 was stranded in the middle of the track.

Perez sat fifth when the incident occurred but fell down the order by the end of the first third of qualifying. By the end of Q1, the Red Bull driver fell to dead last.

In a dangerous position of being knocked out of qualifying, Hamilton locked up on one of his final flying laps but ended up with a lock-up into the Nouvelle Chicane and had to abort his lap, to recharge his battery for another run.

Fortunately, Hamilton got the necessary performance out of his soft compound Pirelli boots as the world champion climbed out of the elimination zone as the chequered flag fell on Q1.

As the track continued to evolve, Sargeant was not able to get out of Q1 whereas his teammate, Albon, was able to jump well clear of the elimination places to go third fastest – behind Verstappen and Alpha Tauri’s Yuki Tsunoda.

Eliminated:

20. Sergio Perez, Red Bull

19. Gunayu Zhou, Alfa Romeo

18. Nico Hulkenberg, Haas

17. Kevin Magnussen, Haas

16. Logan Sargeant, Williams

Q2

Following his teammate’s retirement in Q1, Verstappen was the first driver lined up at the pit exit and waited for the pit exit light to go green, to signal the start of Q2.

After the first set of banker laps, both Mercedes of George Russell and Hamilton peeled into the pit lane for another set of tyres to improve their chances of a Q3 appearance. However, Ferrari’s Carlos Sainz was instructed to stop as he attempted to leave his respective garage, this was due to Hamilton who had popped into the pit lane, behind Russell.

With five minutes left on the clock, Verstappen remained on top of the timing boards with a healthy 1:11.908 lap time ahead of Aston Martin’s Fernando Alonso and Russell who were second and third respectively. Ferrari’s home hero, Charles Leclerc, quickly demoted both drivers down a place as the Monegasque jumped up into second place.

McLaren’s Lando Norris slapped the barrier at Tabac, with two minutes left on the clock, and quickly returned to the pit lane for an assessment. Replays showed the British driver had damaged his suspension on the exit of the Nouvelle Chicane which resulted in his crash with the Armco barrier.

Although Norris did not return to the circuit for another lap in the final moments, Norris’ time was enough to move into Q3 as such the mechanics worked quickly to fix the broken wishbone.

Eliminated:

15. Valtteri Bottas, Alfa Romeo

14. Lance Stroll, Aston Martin

13. Alexander Albon, Williams

12. Nyck De Vries, Alpha Tauri

11. Oscar Piastri, McLaren

Q3

As the pit exit light went green, Verstappen was once again the first driver to peel out onto the circuit. Although Verstappen was strapped with fresh new soft tyres, the Dutchman was only able to put in the fifth-fastest lap after the first set of banker laps.

Aston Martin’s two-time world champion, Fernando Alonso soon jumped up to the top of the timing sheets and onto provisional pole.

Despite everyone’s best efforts, no one was able to beat Alonso’s time until the second bunch of laps commenced. As such, Verstappen jumped to the top of the order by five-hundredths of a second before Alpine’s Esteban Ocon put in a time to go onto pole position, temporarily.

With less than a minute left on the clock, Alonso returned to the top of the order with 0.022 in hand over Monaco’s own Leclerc. Despite Alonso’s best efforts, in his own words ‘driving like an animal,’ Verstappen managed to pip Alonso to pole position by 0.084 seconds.

Top 10:

10. Lando Norris, McLaren

9. Yuki Tsunoda, Alpha Tauri

8. George Russell, Mercedes

7. Pierre Gasly, Alpine

6. Lewis Hamilton, Mercedes

5. Carlos Sainz, Ferrari

4. Esteban Ocon, Alpine

3. Charles Leclerc, Ferrari

2. Fernando Alonso, Aston Martin

1. Max Verstappen, Red Bull

That’s all for the article: Monaco GP: Verstappen narrowly takes pole by 0.084s over Alonso!

With a potential bit of rain expected for tomorrow, who do you think will lead the Monaco Grand Prix after the first corner? Let us know in the comments!

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