Monaco GP Qualifying Report

There were a few bumps in Monaco prior to Qualifying and the most talked about was Hamilton's bump in Free Practice 3 that morning, which meant a quick turnaround for the team.  The first big incident of the weekend though was for Perez who brought out the Red Flag after less than 10 minutes into the first Qualifying session.  With a barrier broken and a hole in the side of his car, he was beached in the middle of the track.  From being King of the Circuit last year, this was abysmal.

We were treated to another amazing shot of a car suspended high above Monte Carlo, against the azure blue sky.  All week there had been mentions of rain, would this come for race day?

The track warmed up with every second that passed and drivers kept shooting up to the top of the timetable.  At the end Hamilton and Sainz were under pressure to put in a good lap to get them through and just made it, putting out Sargeant (who, only moments earlier looked very safe), Magnussen, Hulkenberg (a poor showing all round from Haas), Zhou (who had held the top spot) and Perez last.  It proved that you need to get an amazing lap in as you don't know what flags might come out and the track kept evolving.

The next bump came in the next Qualifying session and it was a bottom wallop by Norris to his McLaren, right at the very end of the session.  The mechanics worked furiously on the car as he was still through to the final Qualifying session, just knocking out his team mate.  Race Control put the start time back for this session, which would benefit the team.  Out went Albon, Bottas, Stroll, Piastri and de Vries.

The final session saw championship-leader Verstappen looking a little shaky but still caught pole position in the final moments.  It looked spicy though with Alonso in second.  He had held pole, with LeClerc in third position having held pole briefly prior.  Ocon also put in a great lap to be first before the top drivers put in their last laps.

The first 100 metres of the race would be electric as Alonso is definitely in it to win it this weekend, possible being one his best chances to take a win this season.  I think LeClerc will play it cautiously as he will at least want a finish first before considering a podium; he first had to survive an inquiry.