@LewisHamilton beats @ValtteriBottas to stunning #MonacoGP pole. #F1

Lewis Hamilton snatched pole position from Mercedes team-mate Valtteri Bottas in the final seconds of qualifying at the Monaco Grand Prix as Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc was shockingly eliminated in Q1.

 

 

Bottas was 0.231 seconds quicker than Hamilton after the first runs in Q3 but could not improve on his second set of fresh C5 soft compounds.

 

Hamilton then planted a 1:10.166 to eclipse team-mate Bottas by 0.086 seconds and take the track record of the legendary street circuit with a brilliant first sector crucial to landing the pole time.

 

Bottas remained in second place, keeping it a Silver Arrows one-two as Red Bull Racing’s Max Verstappen also could not improve on his time to take third on the grid and was 0.475 adrift of Hamilton’s benchmark.

 

Ferrari’s Sebastian Vettel wound up fourth and team-mate Charles Leclerc was a shock elimination in Q1 as the Scuderia suffered a difficult qualifying session.

 

Leclerc completed just one run in the first qualifying stage and narrowly missed out on making Q2 by 0.052 seconds despite only being 0.715 off.

 

The young Monegasque driver competing in his home race was not sent out at the end even though he flat-spotted his red side-walled soft rubber on his initial run even though the team felt he had done enough to progress to Q2.

 

Leclerc also missed the random weighbridge check when he returned to the pits after his flyer, but the Maranello-based squad pushed him back before entering the garage.

 

Leclerc later confirmed he had enough fuel and time to complete a second run even after his delay.

 

Whilst Leclerc remained in the garage, a raft of drivers made improvements as the track continued to evolve and relegated him down the order – which saw one Ferrari eliminate the other.

 

Vettel was unable to post a strong enough time on his initial hot lap after aborting it due to touching the wall through the left and right fast Swimming Pool complex.

 

This meant the German was at risk of being eliminated in Q1 before improving on his second flyer, which improved Vettel to first and thus eliminating team-mate Leclerc.

 

In the final qualifying stage, Vettel set a promising first sector and was on course to improve, until he snagged the wall at the exit of Tabac. as the German settled for fourth place on the grid alongside Verstappen.

 

The other Honda-powered RB15 Red Bull of Pierre Gasly rounded out the top five, but the Frenchman was handed three-grid placed penalty and will start eighth for impeding Haas F1 Team’s Romain Grosjean during Q2.

 

Kevin Magnussen put his VF-19 Haas best of the rest in sixth place before the aforementioned Gasly’s penalty and was the only driver outside the big three teams to have an extra set of softs for two flyers in Q3.

 

Having provisionally taken sixth place on his initial hot lap, he momentarily lost it to Renault’s Daniel Ricciardo and then the Dane reclaimed it on his final flyer.

 

Toro Rosso’s Danill Kvyat qualified eighth (promoted to seventh) behind defending Monaco Grand Prix winner Ricciardo and only a tenth and a half quicker than McLaren’s Carlos Sainz who took ninth.

 

Kvyat’s team-mate Alexander Albon also made Q3 for the first time this season, but settled for tenth and 1.487 seconds off of Hamilton’s benchmark.

 

Renault’s Nico Hulkenberg was knocked out in the final moments of Q2 by Magnussen – who had struggled on his first flyer after locking up and snagging the inside wall at Mirabeau had improved.

 

The other MCL34 McLaren of Lando Norris was 12th quickest and was 0.3 seconds quicker than the second Haas of Grosjean – who complained of traffic over the team radio at the end of the second qualifying stage when impeded by Gasly’s Red Bull.

 

Alfa Romeo Racing duo Kimi Raikkonen and Antonio Giovinazzi were next in 14th and 15th respectively with the latter also being hit with a three grid-placed drop for blocking Renault’s Hulkenberg and will start 18th.

 

The aforementioned Leclerc will start a place higher in 15th on the grid following Giovinazzi’s demotion and ahead of the two Racing Point machines of Sergio Perez and Lance Stroll who are now 16th and 17th respectively.

 

The battle at the rear between the two ROKiT Williams Racing FW42’s saw George Russell get the better of team-mate Robert Kubica to take 19th.

 

The Monaco GP Top Three Qualifiers

 

1st – Lewis Hamilton, #44, Mercedes AMG Petronas Motorsport, F1 W10 EQ Power+: “This is one of the best poles I can remember. We’ve had a lot of success over the years, but I can’t really remember a pole that means as much as this one. It’s been such a difficult week for the whole team and me personally. It’s amazing that we’ve turned up here as a team, continuing to take strides forward together collectively, get stronger and improve our performance weekend in, weekend out. I’m just so proud of everyone. We have a cloud over us this weekend, so we’re really trying to lift each other up and we’re trying to deliver for Niki. I have not had a huge amount of success in Monaco over the years, I never quite got that perfect lap, but I think today was as close as I can get to it. This one is for Niki.”

 

2nd – Valtteri Bottas, #77, Mercedes AMG Petronas Motorsport, F1 W10 EQ Power+: “I definitely felt like I had the speed to take pole today. My first run in Q3 was quick, but I had two or three tenths in my pocket. I was stuck in traffic on my final out lap in Q3, so my tyres weren’t warm enough for the second run. As soon as I started the lap I could feel that they weren’t gripping and I saw during the lap on the screens that Lewis took pole. For me personally that’s annoying, but for the team it’s another incredible result. We have a long race ahead of us and anything can happen tomorrow. The run into Turn 1 is very short in Monaco, so it’s tricky to make a difference there, but I will keep pushing and use every opportunity that might come up.”

 

3rd – Max Verstappen, #33, Aston Martin Red Bull Racing-Honda, RB15: “It was an exciting qualifying and I’m happy to be starting third as I think it was the maximum we could do today. Everyone in the Team works so hard at this race so hopefully they can also be happy with this and my mechanics did a great job. Of course, as a driver and a racer you always want to be on pole but you also have to be realistic. In Q2 it looked pretty good but I knew that they (Mercedes) were coming and that they still had some margin. In Q3 we didn’t quite have the tyre temperature that we wanted on the final run, which cost us a bit of lap time, but I still don’t think we had enough for the front row. Overall, I feel good in the car and we keep pushing hard to improve. It is of course hard to overtake here so it will be very challenging to move forwards in the race, but if we are able to stay close then who knows what can be done with strategy. Whatever happens, I will be pushing as hard as always for the best result.”

 

You can read the full starting grid for today’s Formula 1 Grand Prix De Monaco at the link: https://www.formula1.com/en/results.html/2019/races/1005/monaco/starting-grid.html