Qualifying Highlights | 2021 Monaco Grand Prix

Here comes Kimi Räikkönen next, trying to get out of that driver at risk zone at the moment. He crosses the line, he goes 9th fastest, pushes Giovinazzi down into the danger zone. Might be comfortably the oldest man on the track, Kimi, but that was a great lap. It certainly was. The chequered flag is out. George Russell did not make the chequered flag to start another lap, so he stays down in 12th place. Giovinazzi goes 9th and he should be safely through to the next part of qualifying. Esteban Ocon gets out of the bottom five. He goes 10th fastest, puts Sebastian Vettel down there and in trouble as well. Mazepin improves in the middle sector. Can he keep that going as he rides the kerbs and bounces over that kerb on the exit of the swimming pool chicane? And now with just two more corners to go, he's looking to try and improve on that 19th spot, get possibly out of Q1. No, he stays 19th, so we've lost both Haas drivers again. Tsunoda improves, but his first experience of qualifying in Monaco is only Q1. Fernando Alonso next to cross the line. Fernando Alonso, oh, is out! Alonso is out. He was 7th last time he came to Monaco. He's 17th on the grid in 2021. Nicholas Latifi is next to cross the line. He can't improve either. George Russell continues his record about qualifying at Williams Team 8 at every race together. The bottom five, Tsunoda, Alonso, Latifi, Mazepin and Schumacher. But Valtteri Bottas quickest, Martin. There it is, a Mercedes fastest. Kimi Räikkönen, as you can see, personal best in the first sector. Matching Esteban Ocon and Antonio Giovinazzi as Leclerc goes fastest overall with a 1.10.5. And that'll please the Leclerc grandstand. Russell goes 13th fastest, but for how much longer? Not for long at all. Kimi Räikkönen now goes 11th fastest. He's just missed out, though, on getting into Q2. Antonio Giovinazzi, the driver at risk from those behind, including, of course, Esteban Ocon, who's next to cross the line. Ocon does seize the chequered flag, but only 11th fastest. And Ricciardo out. P12 for Daniel Ricciardo in the McLaren. Stroll will be next to cross the line of the bottom five and trying to get into the top ten to join his teammate Sebastian Vettel. Across the line goes Lance Stroll. Was 14th, now 13th. Goes ahead of Kimi Räikkönen, but he's out of qualifying, too. Daniel Ricciardo is going to be a very disappointed Australian tonight. Yeah, P12 on the grid. That's extremely bad news. Car just settling down nicely before the exit of the swimming pool. And again, that extended braking cranked the lock on. Look, he can pick the throttle up so, so early. The off-camber Antonino. Max Verstappen to the line, then. Here's the time that they're all chasing. It's a 1.10.576. I think Verstappen's time is beatable if Ferrari hook a lap up. We're about to find out. Let's see with Charles Leclerc now, who's taken an extra lap, then, to prepare his tyres to warm it up. Carlos Sainz, his teammate, meanwhile. 18.4 for the first part of the lap. He has found pace, where Charles Leclerc didn't quite manage to hook it together as he got those tyres up to temperature a little better in their working range, I wonder. Yeah, they're just beginning to push the boundaries of the racetrack some more as well. The car didn't quite rotate as well and turn as nicely off the seafront chicane there. Not quite as close to the barrier for Charles Leclerc. What a middle sector that was! It's neat and tidy, that so often happens. You don't have to wring its neck. Sometimes, if you're just in the groove, you'll get the sector time. Seven poles in his career for Charles Leclerc. What a special pole this would be as he comes to the line now, crosses it and moves fastest overall. 1.10.3. No time to celebrate yet. Seven and a half minutes to go in this session. Across the line next, Carlos Sainz, who had aced the middle sector but then lost out a little bit to his teammate and goes third fastest. Lewis Hamilton only fifth fastest on his first run and Sergio Perez just behind him in sixth. 7.10s off the pace. Three quarters of a second off the pace for Hamilton. New livery, of course, on the McLaren for this race and how gorgeous does it look? Beautiful retro livery as they roll back the years and Lando Norris crosses the line and goes fifth fastest. Right-hand corner at Tabac. 110 miles an hour, maybe. Oh no, that's too much kerb! And you can see he might have rattled the armco a little bit there. The catch fencing was vibrating. He ran into a traffic jam at the end of this lap. He very nearly got the rear end into the barrier at the final corner as well. Perez stays ninth fastest. Not a surprise. Yeah, that was a horrible lap for a number of reasons, wasn't it? Lots too much traffic, certainly. Lewis Hamilton now round the Lowe's hairpin. He's put in an 18.5. Oh, he's in the barriers! He's just tagged the barrier coming down from Portier and has managed to keep some forward speed. This is going to be a pretty bad qualifying session for Lewis Hamilton unless he can pull something amazing out of the bag. He was 13th on the grid in 2017. He was 19th in 2009 at the moment. He's only seventh fastest. Lewis Hamilton is round to back. He goes where he once crashed in a race and went on to win it. Look at this, three and a half tenths down. How often do we say that about Lewis Hamilton in qualifying? We don't. He's backed off again. So that was a scruffy lap. Verstappen, an 18.4 first sector. Oh, and it's going to come to nothing for Max Verstappen. He might have been setting the pace, but Charles Leclerc, the man on pole, has gone into the barriers. The red flag has come out with only 18 seconds remaining. That is it for qualifying. Leclerc's on pole, but he's crashed and he's ended the session early. And the man who could deny him has been thwarted. Oh, he hit the barrier on the way and then broke his track rod, broke the steering arm and straight to the scene of the accident. So this is where... Oh, he missed it by a long way, didn't he? And three wheels on his wagon, effectively. And just a little ski slope to help him on his way towards the barriers. But Leclerc, as it stands at the moment, does start on pole. Verstappen alongside him. Valtteri Bottas, third on the grid. Carlos Sainz will start alongside him on the second row. Lando Norris, brilliant qualifying, his best in Monaco, will start fifth ahead of Pierre Gasly. He was a tenth ahead of Lewis Hamilton, who starts seventh for this Monaco Grand Prix.