Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc snatched pole position at his home Monaco Grand Prix on Saturday, as championship leader Max Verstappen could only finish sixth fastest. The 26-year-old Monegasque driver, who has never managed a podium finish at his home race, clocked a best lap of one minute and 10.270 seconds to outpace Australian Oscar Piastri of McLaren by 0.154 seconds. It brought Leclerc his third Monaco pole position and ended Verstappen’s run of seven straight poles this year and a record-equalling eight in succession, shared with three-time champion Ayrton Senna.

Three-time world champion Verstappen struggled for Red Bull after hitting the barriers on his final fast lap.

“It was so nice,” said a relieved Leclerc after a tense and thrilling qualifying.

“I’m really happy about my lap. The excitement was so high, but I know from the past that qualifying is not everything. The win is the target.”

Leclerc’s Ferrari team-mate Carlos Sainz was third ahead of Lando Norris in the second McLaren, Mercedes’ George Russell and Verstappen.

“It was close,” said Piastri. “If you took the second half of my first lap and the first half of my second one it would have been enough for pole!”

Sainz added: “I’ve struggled all weekend with confidence in the car so it’s an improvement. I just wish I was fighting for pole.”

Seven-time champion Lewis Hamilton was seventh in the second Mercedes ahead of RB’s Yuki Tsunoda, Alex Albon of Williams and Pierre Gasly of Alpine.

In near-perfect Riviera conditions with sunshine and temperatures of 48 degrees celsius on the track and 21 in the air, Hamilton led Russell and the rest out of the pits.

Fiercely-contested

As the Mercedes ran two preparatory laps, it was Tsunoda on top for RB before Hamilton took command only for the rapidly-tumbling times to deliver Verstappen, Kevin Magnussen and Nico Hulkenberg on top, the two Haas drivers retaining their positions until Russell took over.

Leclerc, disappointed by Ferrari’s decision to delay his entry, was 13th before he recorded a fast lap to go top in 1:11.653, a tenth clear of Magnussen and Hulkenberg.

In a fiercely-contested session, Hamilton jumped to second, but Perez was 14th and Norris 18th with only a minute remaining before, in a frantic finish to Q1, the Briton climbed to safety, but Perez was out along with Alonso.

The Mexican was 18th making an early exit for the second year running along with the two-time champion, in his Aston Martin, Williams’ Logan Sargeant, Valtteri Bottas and his Sauber team-mate Zhou Guanyu.

“We’ve struggled all the way through,” said Perez. “It is so tight, the margins I thought I could make the top five.”

Norris was first out for Q2, but Sainz swiftly went quickest ahead of Verstappen in another tight tussle with barely a second separating the top 14 and the Alpines suddenly flying, Gasly claiming a place in Q3 in fifth. “Let’s go, let’s go!” he cried.

Piastri, looking confident, then clocked a 1:10.756 only to be beaten by team-mate Norris as the McLarens took control ahead of Leclerc and Russell before another busy finale saw Esteban Ocon of Alpine, Hulkenberg, Daniel Ricciardo of RB, Lance Stroll in the second Aston Martin and Magnussen eliminated.

Sainz was first out for the top ten shootout, followed by Hamilton who clocked 1:10.975, an impressive lap that was blown away immediately by Leclerc in 1:10.418, a lap nine-tenths faster than Verstappen’s pole time last year.

The Dutchman’s first timed lap left him third after losing time in the final sector. “Still the same issues in Turns Five and Ten,” he reported.

As conditions continued to improve, Sainz and Verstappen chose to run again on a traffic-free lap, the rest following.

Hamilton improved to take fourth, but Russell beat him and then Verstappen glanced a barrier before Leclerc improved to 1:10.418 to take a dramatic pole ahead of Piastri, the Italian team’s 250th pole position in Formula One.

Max Verstappen is braced for a difficult Monaco Grand Prix weekend aware that his rivals are beginning to mount a sustained challenge to his bid for a fourth consecutive drivers’ world title. The three-time champion and series leader said on Thursday that he felt both Ferrari and McLaren could threaten his hopes of a third victory in the Mediterranean principality in Sunday’s race. “It’s one of the more difficult tracks for us,” said the 26-year-old Dutchman, who won last Sunday’s Emilia Romagna Grand Prix by less than a second ahead of McLaren’s Lando Norris. “In the last few years, Ferrari have always been very, very strong here and McLaren, lately, in the last two races, have really ramped up their performance so they are, for sure, ones to watch as well.

“In Monaco, you can always have surprises. Last year, Esteban (Ocon) did an amazing lap in qualifying so these kind of things can happen when someone feels really good, really confident.”

Verstappen leads the drivers’ championship by 48 points ahead of Charles Leclerc of Ferrari, after winning five of the opening seven races this year, but knows that Norris, who claimed his maiden victory in Miami three weeks ago, has the speed to beat him. 

The Dutchman hopes to extend his Ayrton Senna record-equalling sequence of eight pole positions to an outright new record of nine in Saturday’s qualifying session that is so critical to the outcome of Sunday’s race. 

The high kerbs around the barrier-lined street track represent a major worry to Red Bull, as Verstappen admitted. 

Last year’s Singapore Grand Prix, on another street circuit with high kerbs, was the only event at which they failed to score a podium finish.

“Our car normally struggles a bit over bumps and kerbs,” said Verstappen.

“We did work on it a bit, compared to last year, and I think our low-speed performance has improved a little on most of the tracks we’ve been to this year.

“But I don’t think it’s going to be an easy weekend! Monaco is never straightforward, even when you have the best car. It is so very tricky. You need to get everything to work and there is always a lot of disruption.”

He added that he wanted to avoid a repeat of his experience at Imola where after a bad start, in two difficult days of practice, he recovered to win by 0.725 seconds, resisting Norris’s late charge.

“For sure, things have closed up a lot since Miami and now it is very dependent on finding the best set-up. We have to be at our best and maybe in the last few races we haven’t been operating at that level.”

Max Verstappen secured his eighth consecutive pole position in qualifying for the Emilia Romagna Grand Prix at Imola on Saturday to equal the record of Ayrton Senna. The Red Bull three-time world champion’s dominance in qualifying drew him level with Senna’s run of eight poles, poignantly three decades after the late great Brazilian’s tragic death at the Italian circuit in 1994. “It’s a great start to the year but also very special 30 years since he passed away at this track,” said Verstappen.

“Of course, very pleased to get pole here and in a way it’s a nice memory to him (Senna), he was an incredible Formula 1 driver especially in qualifying laps as well, so a great day for me and a great day for the team, I’m very very happy.”

Oscar Piastri’s McLaren was to have started alongside the unstoppable Dutchman on Sunday after posting the second fastest time 0.074 seconds behind in a tight qualifying session.

However, the Australian was docked three grid places for impeding the Haas of Kevin Magnussen.

That promoted McLaren teammate Lando Norris, winner last time out in Miami, to the front row.

The two Ferraris of Charles Leclerc and Carlos Sainz will set off from the second row with Piastri now alongside the Mercedes of George Russell on the third row.

Yuki Tsunoda’s RB, Lewis Hamilton (Mercedes), Daniel Ricciardo (RB), and Nico Hulkenberg (Haas) rounded out the top 10.

The glaring absentee from the first five rows was the Red Bull of Sergio Perez, who went out in the second qualifying session, the Mexican muttering “what a mess” on the team radio.

– ‘Tiny margins’ –

Piastri had initially been thrilled to get so close to taking pole.

“My lap was a bit scruff in the final corner, but it is so difficult to do a perfect lap at this circuit,” he said before the penalty was handed down.

Norris added: “Not a bad job, it’s all about tiny margins.”

After a chaotic third practice on a beautiful sunlit day at the Autodromo Enzo e Dino Ferrari Verstappen was swiftly on the pace and went top after eight minutes in 1:16.013 only to be outpaced within a minute by Piastri and then Norris, the McLarens endorsing their practice speed.

Fernando Alonso’s difficult day continued when his Aston Martin went off at the exit of Tamburello, taking a dive through the gravel, but avoiding any contact with the barriers. He pitted, accepting he could not improve on 20th and last on the grid.

Hulkenberg then went top for Haas before Verstappen outpaced him along with Leclerc as Q1 ended with Valtteri Bottas of Sauber, Logan Sargeant of Williams Zhou Guanyu of Sauber and Magnussen, in the second Haas, exiting with Alonso.

Hamilton was out early to top Q2 ahead of Russell before the Red Bulls finally found their pace, Verstappen going top in 1:15.386, despite running wide at Rivazza, with Perez second. All were running on softs.

Leclerc then took the initiative with Tsunoda slotting into second place, all proof that Red Bull were not having it their own way – and the top seven all within half a second of the pace.

On their second runs, Verstappen improved to take top spot, but team-mate Perez missed out on the top-ten shootout and was eliminated in 11th along with Esteban Ocon of Alpine, Lance Stroll of Aston Martin, Alex Albon of Williams and Pierre Gasly, sporting a Senna-yellow helmet, in the second Alpine.

The top four were separated by four-tenths of a second for the final runs which saw Verstappen, digging into his reserves of talent, grab pole with a dazzling lap in 1:14.746 – a clear example of an outstanding driver delivering beyond the potential of his car.