#MonacoGP Qualifying: @CharlesLeclerc storms to home race pole as Perez shunt ends Q3 early. #F1

Leclerc Monaco GP pole – Charles Leclerc stormed to pole in qualifying for his home Monaco GP in a Ferrari one-two, which finished under red flags after Red Bull’s Sergio Perez crashed late in Q3.

 

 

Leclerc lead his Ferrari team-mate Carlos Sainz ahead of the final hot-laps in the last segment, with his 1:11.376 benchmark holding provisional pole.

 

Perez appeared to be Red Bull’s best chance to snatch pole after topping the earlier Free Practice 3 session and leading team-mate Max Verstappen throughout qualifying and trailed Leclerc on the final flying tours on the C5 red side-walled softer compounds, the second set for the top three runners in the shootout.

 

Leclerc posted all three purple sectors to score a solid 1:11.376 – while the following Perez could not respond with a personal best at that point.

 

Whilst Leclerc exited the tunnel, Perez lost the rear of his RB18 racer out of Portier and smashed the right rear of his car, after which Sainz also spun when he he came around the right-hand corner and found the damaged-stricken Red Bull.

 

Sainz therefore hit the right-front wheel of Perez’s RB18 and was also stuck, with the red flags waving and prevented any late improvements or position swaps as there was less than a minute remaining on the clock and no chance of it being restarted.

 

This secured Leclerc’s second Monaco pole position, with Sainz’s best effort from his initial hot-lap from the start of the final segment putting him 0.225 seconds off his team-mate, with Perez taking third with his 1:11.629 effort.

 

Verstappen ran one set of softs throughout Q3 as he opted to continue pushing for gains until the flag, ending up fourth on the grid and unable to improve – he had just posted a personal best in sector one that was 0.1 seconds off Leclerc’s leading benchmark there – because of his team-mate’s shunt.

 

McLaren’s Lando Norris reached fifth just before the leaders began their final flyers, with Mercedes’ George Russell qualifying sixth.

 

BWT Alpine F1 Team’s Fernando Alonso placed seventh on the classification – but the double world champion too suffered a crash, ending up in the barriers at Mirabeau at almost the same time as Perez and Sainz who crashed further downhill in sector two.

 

The other Mercedes W13 entry of Sir Lewis Hamilton was eighth and ahead of Aston Martin’s Sebastian Vettel who took ninth and Alpine’s Esteban Ocon who rounded out the top ten.

 

Leclerc lead the session’s middle segment, which featured a scary moment for the Monegasque driver, as he missed the call to the FIA weighbridge with just over five minutes left in Q2.

 

Luckily, the Ferrari driver stopped in the pit-lane before returning to the his team garage so he could be pushed backward by his mechanics to be weighed – the result of which meant he would avoid receiving a sporting penalty, as returning to the Ferrari pits would have seen him risking a disqualification from qualifying.

 

In Q2, AlphaTauri’s Yuki Tsunoda missed out on progressing into Q3 after a late improvement from Vettel and will start 11th on the grid.

 

Alfa Romeo F1 Team ORLEN’s Valtteri Bottas improved on his final flyer with personal bests, but was only enough for 12th and starts ahead of Haas F1 Team pairing Kevin Magnussen and Mick Schumacher who were 13th and 15th respectively as McLaren’s Daniel Ricciardo split the VF-22 entries in 14th.

 

In the first qualifying segment, which was also topped by Leclerc, Tsunoda clipped the inside wall at the Nouvelle Chicane and picked up an instant puncture with just over two minutes remaining, with the red flags waving as a result.

 

This lead to a large queue of cars at the end of the pit-lane as the drivers below the top five at the time emerged immediately to try and set one flying tour, with track evolution being a major factor in who progressed through the sessions as the rubber created more grip and the drivers built more confidence.

 

Gaps between the cars in the long train leaving the pit-lane meant a few drivers missed out on the opportunity to begin a final hot-lap, with AlphaTauri’s Pierre Gasly and Alfa Romeo’s Zhou Guanyu eliminated as a result of this – the former’s effort slowly relegated him down the order until Tsunoda’s AlphaTauri team-mate was knocked out with the chance to set one last time.

 

Williams Racing’s Alexander Albon lead the queue of cars out on track and managed to post a personal best effort with his final flyer, but was pushed out as others found time.

 

This was the case with Tsunoda and the McLaren pairing, who all made it out of the elimination zone with their improvements to send Albon out of Q1.

 

Aston Martin’s Lance Stroll could not set a better time on his final flying tour and was knocked out, furious on the team radio, in a low-18th, in-front of Williams Racing’s Nicholas Latifi, who did save his best effort for last and could only manage 19th.

 

You can see the full Formula 1 Grand Prix De Monaco 2022 Qualifying Results Classification at the link: https://www.formula1.com/en/results.html/2022/races/1112/monaco/qualifying.html

 

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2022 Monaco GP Qualifying – The Top Three

 

 

2022 Monaco GP Pole Position – Charles Leclerc, #16, Scuderia Ferrari, F1-75, 1:11.376:

“It is very special, I’m incredibly happy. It’s been a smooth weekend so far, that last lap before the red flag was really good. I was so on the limit.”

 

2nd Place – Carlos Sainz, #55, Scuderia Ferrari, F1-75, +0.225:

“Perez crashed in front of me, I was on my flying lap, I saw the yellow flag and hit the brakes and had to avoid him as best I could. It’s a shame, another year I couldn’t go for pole position, but it’s Monaco. We will never know but I was feeling good with the car today.”

 

3rd Place – Sergio Perez, #11, Oracle Red Bull Racing-RBPT, RB18. +0.253:

***Not Supplied.***

 

In the earlier FP3 session it was Red Bull’s Perez topping the time-sheets ahead of Ferrari pairing Leclerc and Sainz who were second and third respectively, his team-mate Verstappen in fourth and AlphaTauri’s Gasly who completed the top five. You can see the full Formula 1 Grand Prix De Monaco 2022 Free Practice 3 Results Classification at the link: https://www.formula1.com/en/results.html/2022/races/1112/monaco/practice-3.html

 

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