Monaco GP Qualifying Report

During the Practice sessions both Hamilton and Piastri crashed which gave a sense that anything could happen in Qualifying.  Ferrari just managed to rebuild the car in time.  Bearman would have a ten place grid penalty for overtaking under a Red Flag.  All eyes were on Williams to see if they could qualify high up, continuing their revival and potentially score lots of points in the race.

LeClerc was fastest in the first Qualifying session, the man who knows the track better than anyone.  Out went Bortoleto, Bearman, Gasly, Stroll (who was in everyone's way all the time) and Colapinto.  Piastri was the only driver to kiss the wall but Antonelli brought a sour end to the session, preventing those at the back having any chance at getting through with a final minute smash into the barrier.  This brought out the Red Flag.  He was through in 15th and would stay there.

A few minutes into the second session Russell came to a stop in the tunnel, after turning his car off and on again.  It would be a very hard place to extract it from and George got the marshals pushing it to a safer place.  It was an awful Qualifying for Mercedes.  With both of them out, there were only three more spaces to fill in the bottom five.  It looked likely it would be Hulkenberg (it was in 13th) and then Ocon or the Racing Bulls.  Unfortunately it was Sainz and Tsunoda, whose team mates finished 3rd and 5th.  Here was Williams outperforming the Red Bulls.  Norris took the fastest time with LeClerc hot on his heels.

At the last gasp in the final session, LeClerc took pole.  Verstappen could only manage 5th.  Then Piastri was on a quick lap but could not get higher than 3rd.  Norris put together a great lap and did take pole; it could be his comeback lap.  Disappointingly, Albon was 10th.  Between them was Hamilton in 4th, Hadjar in 6th, then Alonso, Ocon and Lawson.

Everyone seems pretty defeated by their position on the grid, even Norris.  So if the mandatory two stops don't make the race exciting enough for you, don't forget that you can play spot the difference with the new McLaren livery.  It's very tricky.