Raikkonen claims dominant pole in Monte Carlo to lead all-Ferrari front row, Vettel P2; Mercedes’ Bottas P3 but Hamilton bounced out in Q2
Ferrari’s Kimi Raikkonen grabbed his first pole since 2008, dominating his more heralded teammate Sebastian Vettel and leaving both rival Mercedes well in his wake. Vettel was still good enough for P2 .05 behind his Finnish wingman in the excellent Ferrari chassis, scoring the second front row lockout of the year for the Scuderia. Mercedes’ Valtteri Bottas was able to muscle his Silver Arrow up to P3 with a spirited challenge but his teammate, Lewis Hamilton, struggled for grip on the iconic street circuit throughout the day and then was fatally balked on his final lap in Q2 by the crashing McLaren of Lance Stroll at the Swimming Pool. That left Hamilton in the unfamiliar position of starting from P14 with all to do to fight his way through the field for points on a street circuit where passing is at a premium.
The two Red Bulls of Max Verstappen and Daniel Ricciardo seemed well suited to the ultra-tight twists and turns of the principality, qualifying P4 and P5 respectively. They could well be spoilers at Ferrari’s presumptive party, with Ricciardo looking to avenge last year’s bitter disappointment and young Max simply looking to finish his first Monaco GP. Carlos Sainz was able to lift his Toro Rosso up to P6, while Sergio Perez was seventh fastest in his Force India and Haas’ Romain Grosjean took an admirable P8, a solid recovery after numerous spins seemed to spell doom for his efforts. Rounding out ten Top 10, the two McLaren’s were able to thrive on this low speed circuit where their poor Honda power plant was not as exposed as in most venues. The returning veteran and 2009 champ Jenson Button, driving a one-off while Fernando Alonso races the Indianapolis 500 halfway around the world on Sunday, did yeoman’s work to make it through to Q3 with his P9. And his teammate Stoffel Vandoorne was truly quick and might have done better than P10 if he hadn’t binned his McLaren in that fateful shunt at the end of Q2 that brought such grief to both him and Lewis Hamilton.
Top 10 qualifiers for the Monaco Grand Prix:
| POS | DRIVER | Q1 | Q2 | Q3 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 1:13.117 | 1:12.231 | 1:12.178 | |
| 2 | 1:13.090 | 1:12.449 | 1:12.221 | |
| 3 | 1:13.325 | 1:12.901 | 1:12.223 | |
| 4 | 1:13.078 | 1:12.697 | 1:12.496 | |
| 5 | 1:13.219 | 1:13.011 | 1:12.998 | |
| 6 | 1:13.526 | 1:13.397 | 1:13.162 | |
| 7 | 1:13.530 | 1:13.430 | 1:13.329 | |
| 8 | 1:13.786 | 1:13.203 | 1:13.349 | |
| 9 | 1:13.723 | 1:13.453 | 1:13.613 | |
| 10 | 1:13.476 | 1:13.249 |
Complete qualifying results available via Formula1.com.
Tomorrow’s race airs live at 8 AM Eastern on NBC here in the States. Will Ferrari dominate the day as all signs point to? And can Kimi knock off his championship-leading teammate for once? Or will Mercedes work some strategic magic to pull Hamilton up from the midfield to perhaps help Bottas take the fight to Ferrari? Hope to see you then to find out!