In the busy heart of the French Riviera, the streets of Monte Carlo once again roared to life ahead of Qualifying at the 2025 Monaco Grand Prix. The highly anticipated session promised chaos, close battles, and heartbreak, of which we got plenty.
Q1 Gets Underway
Alex Albon lead the pack out of the pit lane for the start of the session. He opted for soft tyres like the majority of the grid.
With six minutes left of Q1, Lance Stroll found himself in hot water for the second time this weekend, after impeding Pierre Gasly. Stroll’s car placement resembled his incident with Charles Leclerc in FP1 on Friday.
Antonelli Brings Out The Red Flag
Just as the drivers were putting in their final laps of Q1, Kimi Antonelli crashed into the Nouvelle Chicane. Similarly to Isack Hadjar earlier this weekend, he clipped the inside barrier out of the tunnel.
The Results Are In!
After Antonelli brought out the red flag, many drivers did not have the opportunity to complete their final laps. Just moments before the red flag, Hadjar crossed the line and climbed up the timesheet.
Gabriel Bortoleto, Ollie Bearman, Pierre Gasly, Lance Stroll and Franco Colapinto failed to improve their times, which led to their elimination in the first section of Qualifying.
Q2 Commences, But Not For Long…
At the start of Q2, there was a mix of tyres, with some drivers such as the two Ferrari drivers opting for Mediums.
Williams team principal James Vowles assured us that the Williams cars were fuelled for the whole session.
Both Mercedes Out!
The second Mercedes of George Russel brought out the second red flag of the session. Unfortunately, Russel lost power and coasted the car into the tunnel before it came to a halt. The clock stopped with 10 Minutes and 8 seconds to go, and we saw all of the drivers feeding pack into the pits.
Shock Eliminations
Q2 wrapped up with some surprising results. The RedBull of Yuki Tsunoda failed to make it to Q3, after placing 12th on the time sheets. This won’t be surprising for the driver, but still painful nonetheless. Both Mercedes missed out on the opportunity of starting in the top ten after their incidents earlier in the session. Carlos Sainz and Nico Hulkenberg also failed to improve their times.
Who Can Secure Pole?
It was a nail biting top ten shootout for the final 12 minutes of Qualifying. McLaren were straight out, hoping to avoid any red flag shenanigans by banking a fast lap early on.
Lewis Hamilton set some personal bests, yet still was unable to complete with the McLarens, who were absolutely blazing through the last few minutes of Qualifying.
Charles Leclerc took provisional pole momentarily, with the cheers of the fans echoing though Monte Carlo.
Norris Secures Pole… And A Track Record!
Lando Norris took all hope of pole from Leclerc, with an astonishing 1m 09.954s lap, which secured him the lap record and pole position in Qualifying at the 2025 Monaco Grand Prix. On used tyres, Norris pushed himself harder than ever before, and it proved to be successful.
Home boy Leclerc is starting alongside Norris on the front row, with his McLaren teammate close behind in 3rd.
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