Prior to the race Nico Rosberg declared that Mercedes didn't stand a chance of pole on the Riviera, they were too far behind Ferrari and Red Bull at this glittering track. And he was right.
Immediately prior to Qualifying, both Latifi and Schumacher crashed in FP3. Haas couldn't/wouldn't fix the car in time, given a penalty identified for a gearbox change. Williams worked hard, whilst celebrating 750 grand prix, and had the second Williams ready. If being Mr Saturday was ever important, being so in Monaco is it, so all eyes were watching his team mate Russell.
Would Ferrari do a Monza and pull out all the stops to give Monegasque LeClerc the best chance on race day? He had the fastest lap in Q2 to set this up. Will Ferrari prove to be quick at other street and street-style circuits? Giving us the thrilling excitement of three teams competing at some races this season. Hard to believe we're only four races in.
At the end of Q1, Mazepin outqualified his team mate for the first time ever...I get the feeling he will be celebrating and bragging to all those who wouldn't know it was because his team mate couldn't go out in his car. In all fairness, this was because Mazepin didn't crash his car prior to the most important Qualifying session on the calendar.
The surprise exit was two-times world champion Fernando Alonso, which will be a real low for him. He could't get the tires to work. At this point Mr Saturday, George Russell was ahead of three world champions, Alonso, Vettel and Raikkonen. Russell did go out in Q2 and was last in the session, did he save tires? Not sure why he wasn't out for a final push at the end.
The big scalp in Q2 was Ricciardo, finishing 12th to Norris's final grid position of 5th. Up until this point, it looked like it could go either way for Mercedes, who are infamous for "sandbagging".
It was tense half way through Q3, with three different teams in the top three after their first run. The Sky commentary team were watching a dark cloud up on the hills, that didn't seem to be moving at all, in case it brought a rainy end to qualifying. There is always the danger of a yellow flag slowing you down at Monaco too. Would everyone make it safely through to the end?
Perez was caught out by kerbs and traffic. Hamilton touched the barrier. Ultimately LeClerc brought the session to an abrupt red-flag ending, 18 seconds from the end, with a crash, touching the barrier, taking off over the kerb and into the armco. Rosberg, always the voice of gloom, wondered if there would be any damage to his gearbox which would give him a grid penalty.
Bottas took the safe opportunity of commenting that he was gutted not to have be given his final shot at pole as he felt confident, however we'll never know will we? Verstappen's times looked more promising to take the pole from LeClerc, he didn't seem too disappointed with how it ended (perhaps relieved it wasn't him in the barrier?). Understandably, LeClerc was very happy, he felt he had it after Q2 and found it difficult to focus going into Q3. He says that he has been unlucky here before and not to count his winning chick before it's hatched (my translation), he should be worried, will one crash lead to another when it really counts?
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