Charles Leclerc claimed pole position for the Monaco Grand Prix in a most unusual set of circumstances. The Ferrari driver held the top place provisionally with less than 30 seconds of Q3 left to run but found the wall at the exit of the Swimming Pool, broke the right front suspension and nosed into the outside wall at the exit of the chicane. Max Verstappen had held back for one last flying lap and appeared to be on course for a faster time, only to slow in the aftermath of Leclerc’s accident.

“It was a shame to finish in the wall!” Leclerc said to Sky Sports.“I have mixed feelings a little bit, because with the crash I don’t know where I’m starting tomorrow yet, it depends on the damage on the car so I really hope that… we won’t be starting from the back. If it’s not the case, then of course I’m incredibly happy with whatever happened before the crash It wasn’t a great lap I was on in the last one and I tried to do a bit more for the last sector, but obviously there was too much time to recover, and I just did too much and I just touched the wall on the inside and went straight into the wall.

So it’s a shame how it ended up, but obviously it was very difficult for me to manage the whole session. I was very emotional after Q2 obviously, because I’ve seen that there was actually an opportunity to do pole position here, then I calmed myself down, did a great lap in Q3 run one and then what happened, happened.”

While Leclerc retained P1 after qualifying ended, he faced an anxious wait as the Ferrari engineers began the process of assessing the damage and dismantling the car. Replacing parts may lead to a grid penalty come race day.

EDIT from F1: Ferrari find no ‘serious damage’ to polesitter Leclerc’s gearbox after qualifying crash, But as Saturday evening rolled in, his Ferrari squad revealed the news he’d been hoping for: No serious damage to his gearbox, meaning he should be able to start his home race from pole position as planned. Ferrari stopped short of confirming Leclerc was in the clear, saying that further checks would be carried out ahead of the race. Any change in gearbox would result in an automatic five-place grid drop, relegating him to sixth place and promoting Red Bull’s Max Verstappen to pole

Max Verstappen ended in P2 and was philosophical about the circumstances that took place in those final moments of qualifying.

“Qualifying around here is a lot of fun. I did a decent first lap in Q3 but the tyres weren’t quite in the window and I knew it was going to come down to the last run,” Verstappen told Red Bull Media. “My last lap felt really good as I was going into the tunnel, but because of the red flag I couldn’t finish it which was frustrating as I felt so comfortable in the car and I knew pole position was on. Obviously Charles is driving very well so I knew it would be tight but everyone back at the factory and here at the track has done an amazing job to get the car to where it is now, especially after we struggled so much on Thursday. I think it’s been a very good weekend so far, we recovered well from practice and we’re starting on the front row tomorrow, which is the most important thing in Monaco, so it’s not too bad. I can be quite happy with second after that red flag and now we just need to finish off the job tomorrow.”

Valtteri Bottas was the best of the Mercedes-AMG Petronas F1 cars in 3rd place, a little over 2/10ths behind Leclerc. World Championship leader Lewis Hamilton could manage no better than 7th, behind Sainz, Norris an Gasly and admitted that rain was his best chance for a good result on Sunday.

“It didn’t feel too bad on Thursday, and then we made some changes and it felt pretty terrible today, so of course we go back to the drawing board,” Hamilton said to Sky Sports.

“I think from my point I just had such a lack of grip out there, which then leads you to overdrive and start trying to get more from it (but) it doesn’t improve. Today was a question of tyres, the tyres were just not working and I was sliding around. I’ve not spoken to the engineers just yet. Valtteri did a better job at the end of the day.

It’s almost impossible to overtake here. Where we are, that’s pretty much the case, but the minimum would hopefully be 7th and then we’ve got to see how we can move forwards.

“I’m hopeful it could rain,” he added. “I don’t think it will rain, but it would be nice if it did.”

Daniel Ricciardo was another to find qualifying a somewhat disappointing affair. His chances were not helped by a call to the weigh bridge deep into Q2 as he ultimately finished just outside the top 10.

“It’s more confusing than frustrating at the moment, that’s the emotion I’m feeling,” Ricciardo told McLaren Media. “There were some laps that, for sure, were a bit messy which explained maybe a couple of tenths. Since Thursday we’ve made some progress and this was continuing throughout qualifying with each run. I had to stop at the scales towards the end of Q2, so we didn’t have the tyres as we wanted which put us on the back foot a little bit for the final run.

Usually, you can feel when you’re a bit off the pace, but I haven’t had that, and I don’t feel like I’ve forgotten how to drive this track. I’m still getting up to speed with the driving style needed to get the maximum out of this car, and maybe that’s amplified here in Monaco. But, we know what we need to work on and we’ll keep pushing for the race tomorrow.”

Sebastian Vettel’s fortunes took an upward turn with the 8th best time for the race, finishing immediately behind Lewis Hamilton. Having endured a difficult start to the 2021 season after moving to the Aston Martin Cognizant team. Vettel outpaced young teammate Lance Stroll on the familiar streets of Monaco.

“On a track like this, you need confidence, and I think qualifying eighth is a good sign that we are making progress with this car,” Vettel told Aston Martin Conizant Media. “Already on Thursday, I had a good feeling with the car in practice, and today was just about building on that feeling and progressing in each session. In Q1, it was very tight because we only ran one set of Softs because I wanted to make sure we had a second set for Q3. It worked, but then we were not able to use them [due to Charles Leclerc’s crash], which was a shame. However, we can be happy about getting the car into Q3, which means we are starting inside the points already and, here in Monaco, that is crucial because it is so hard to overtake.”

Only 19 of the 20 car field made it to qualifying, with the Haas of Mick Schumacher unable to be repaired following his sizeable incident in P3. Mazepin, Latifi, Alonso and Tsunoda were eliminated in Q1, while Russell, Raikkonen, Stroll, Ricciardo and Ocon dropped out at the conclusion of Q2. Perez and Giovinazzi completed the top 10 qualifiers for the race.

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