Charles Leclerc will start his home grand prix from pole position for the second year in succession ahead of team mate Carlos Sainz Jnr.
The Ferrari drivers will start ahead of the Red Bulls of Sergio Perez and Max Verstappen after Perez crashed at Portier on his final flying lap, resulting in a crash with Sainz that left the track blocked and effectively ended the session.
Lando Norris will start fifth for McLaren, ahead of George Russell and Fernando Alonso, who also crashed at Mirabeau in the closing minutes.
Q1
After the three practice sessions had all taken place under clear skies and bright sunshine over the city of Monte Carlo, the clouds had drifted over by the time the green light at the end of the pit lane signalled the start of the first phase of qualifying.
Sergio Perez was the first of the Red Bulls to set a lap time, posting a 1’14.369 to go quickest, but was immediately pipped by team mate Max Verstappen, who went 0.074s quicker. Fernando Alonso briefly jumped to the top of the standings with his first flying lap of the hour, before Perez improved to reclaim the fastest time by just over a tenth.
Carlos Sainz Jnr set an identical lap time to Perez to go second quickest, before Leclerc moved into the 1’12s for the first time with a 1’12.939. He later improved by just under four tenths, with Sainz also going faster to go second.
With five minutes remaining, the drop zone consisted of two Aston Martins of Lance Stroll and Sebastian Vettel, the two Alfa Romeos of Zhou Guanyu and Valtteri Bottas, plus Nicholas Latifi’s Williams, with Yuki Tsunoda at risk of elimination in 15th. Stroll moved himself to 11th, knocking Tsunoda into the drop zone. Latifi also improved to go 16th, but that left him still at risk of elimination.
Vettel bettered his time too, moving Esteban Ocon’s Alpine and Daniel Ricciardo’s McLaren down into the drop zone in 16th, just behind team mate Lando Norris. Then, with two-and-a-half minutes remaining, the session was stopped…