Mercedes’ Hamilton asserts authority with blistering pole lap to best Bottas; Verstappen takes P3 ahead of Vettel, Leclerc fails to make it out of Q3 for Ferrari
Mercedes’ ostensible number two driver Valtteri Bottas set down a marker early in Q3 during Saturday qualifying for the Monaco Grand Prix that seemed sure to net the Finn pole position for the race. It was a track record time of just over 70 seconds that the tricky Monte Carlo circuit had never seen before and Bottas appeared to have the measure of his teammate and only real rival, Lewis Hamilton, as well as the rest of the field. But personifying the old saying you’ve got to take the belt from then champ, Hamilton put together a pure blinder as time ran down in the last quali session to pip Bottas by a mere .09 seconds and secure his second career pole at this legendary and legendarily tight street circuit. At a place where starting track position often determines the winner, the 5-time and current reigning champion showed once again that when the big prizes are on the line he still can put it all together and perform at a higher level than anyone else in this era of Formula 1.
Red Bull’s Max Verstappen was quick all weekend long and finally ran a nice clean qualifying session at what had been a personal bogey track for the Dutchman to secure P3 on the grid, besting Ferrari’s Sebastian Vettel who did well to grab P4 despite crashing in free practice 3 earlier on Saturday morning and brushing the wall more than once while pushing hard in qualifying. But that did only a little to offset Ferrari’s woes after the team badly miscalculated in Q1 and failed to get their second driver Charles Leclerc out in time to set a fast enough time to escape the normally perfunctory Top 15 cutoff line. The native Monegasque, who perhaps caused some team confusion by missing a mandatory call to the weigh-bridge and then had to be pushed back down the pit lane manually to make the random stewards exam, was thus saddled with a P16 time and will only start P15 due to others’ penalties. Leclerc was understandably miffed after the mishap and will have it all to do in the race to try and make a decent showing and save the blushes of the Scuderia.
Vertsppen’s Red Bull teammate did reasonably well to qualify P5 behind Vettel, while Kevin Magnusen did a terrific job for team Haas to set the sixth fastest time. Daniel Ricciardo was likewise the lone Renault to make the Top 10 in P7 and the two Toro Rossos of Daniil Kvyat and rookie Alexander Albon showed real pace at this high downforce street circuit to qualify P8 and P10 respectively. Spaniard Carlos Sainz used his experience to push his McLaren up to P9, well; ahead of his rookie teammate Lando Norris, who could do no better than P12.
Top 10 qualifiers for the Monaco GP:
| POS | DRIVER | Q1 | Q2 | Q3 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 1:11.542 | 1:10.835 | 1:10.166 | |
| 2 | 1:11.562 | 1:10.701 | 1:10.252 | |
| 3 | 1:11.597 | 1:10.618 | 1:10.641 | |
| 4 | 1:11.434 | 1:11.227 | 1:10.947 | |
| 5 | 1:11.740 | 1:11.457 | 1:11.041 | |
| 6 | 1:11.865 | 1:11.363 | 1:11.109 | |
| 7 | 1:11.767 | 1:11.543 | 1:11.218 | |
| 8 | 1:11.602 | 1:11.412 | 1:11.271 | |
| 9 | 1:11.872 | 1:11.608 | 1:11.417 | |
| 10 | 1:12.007 | 1:11.429 | 1:11.653 |
Complete qualifying results amiable via Formula1.com.
Tomorrow’s race airs live on ESPN beginning at 9AM Eastern here in the States. Hope to see you then to see how the front row duel between Hamilton and Bottas shakes out or if Vettel or Vertsappen might get the better of the two Mercedes men!