Despite his shunt, which brought qualifying to a premature end, Leclerc qualified ahead of Red Bull's Max Verstappen and Valtteri Bottas of Mercedes after the one-hour qualifying session, which is split into three segments with five cars each being knocked out in Q1 and Q2 before the top-10 shootout of Q3.

Monaco Grand Prix qualifying results: Leclerc on pole from Verstappen

Cla	Driver	Chassis	Time	Gap	km/h
1	Charles Leclerc	Ferrari	1'10.346		170.773
2	Max Verstappen	Red Bull	1'10.576	0.230	170.216
3	Valtteri Bottas	Mercedes	1'10.601	0.255	170.156
4	Carlos Sainz Jr.	Ferrari	1'10.611	0.265	170.132
5	Lando Norris	McLaren	1'10.620	0.274	170.110
6	Pierre Gasly	AlphaTauri	1'10.900	0.554	169.438
7	Lewis Hamilton	Mercedes	1'11.095	0.749	168.973
8	Sebastian Vettel	Aston Martin	1'11.419	1.073	168.207
9	Sergio Perez	Red Bull	1'11.573	1.227	167.845
10	Antonio Giovinazzi	Alfa Romeo	1'11.779	1.433	167.363
11	Esteban Ocon	Alpine	1'11.486	1.140	168.049
12	Daniel Ricciardo	McLaren	1'11.598	1.252	167.786
13	Lance Stroll	Aston Martin	1'11.600	1.254	167.782
14	Kimi Raikkonen	Alfa Romeo	1'11.642	1.296	167.683
15	George Russell	Williams	1'11.830	1.484	167.244
16	Yuki Tsunoda	AlphaTauri	1'12.096	1.750	166.627
17	Fernando Alonso	Alpine	1'12.205	1.859	166.376
18	Nicholas Latifi	Williams	1'12.366	2.020	166.006
19	Nikita Mazepin	Haas	1'12.958	2.612	164.659
20	Mick Schumacher	Haas
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What happened in Q1?

The first session was missing Mick Schumacher, whose Haas F1 team couldn’t repair the car in time after his big shunt at Casino Square in Free Practice 3, although he will be allowed to start the race.

Bottas produced the first meaningful P1 time, at 1m11.794s, which was soon eclipsed by Verstappen’s 1m11.552s and then Carlos Sainz’s 1m11.341s for Ferrari. McLaren’s Lando Norris briefly grabbed top spot with 1m11.321s, before Verstappen produced 1m11.124s.

Bottas was the first man to dip under the 1m11s barrier, lapping in 1m10.938s – which remained the fastest time of the session, 0.175s quicker than Leclerc, with Verstappen close behind in third. World Championship leader Lewis Hamilton, meanwhile, was only seventh in his Mercedes.

Falling at the first hurdle were just the four cars due to Schumacher’s absence: AlphaTauri’s Yuki Tsunoda (missing Q2 by 0.018s), Alpine’s Fernando Alonso, Nicholas Latifi (who did well considering his hefty FP3 crash) and the second Haas of Nikita Mazepin.

Monaco Grand Prix Q1 results: Bottas fastest from Leclerc

Cla	Driver	Chassis	Laps	Time	Gap	Interval	km/h
1	Valtteri Bottas	Mercedes	9	1'10.938			169.347
2	Charles Leclerc	Ferrari	10	1'11.113	0.175	0.175	168.931
3	Max Verstappen	Red Bull	7	1'11.124	0.186	0.011	168.905
4	Lando Norris	McLaren	7	1'11.321	0.383	0.197	168.438
5	Carlos Sainz Jr.	Ferrari	8	1'11.324	0.386	0.003	168.431
6	Pierre Gasly	AlphaTauri	9	1'11.560	0.622	0.236	167.875
7	Lewis Hamilton	Mercedes	14	1'11.622	0.684	0.062	167.730
8	Sergio Perez	Red Bull	9	1'11.644	0.706	0.022	167.679
9	Antonio Giovinazzi	Alfa Romeo	11	1'11.658	0.720	0.014	167.646
10	Esteban Ocon	Alpine	12	1'11.740	0.802	0.082	167.454
11	Daniel Ricciardo	McLaren	12	1'11.747	0.809	0.007	167.438
12	Kimi Raikkonen	Alfa Romeo	11	1'11.899	0.961	0.152	167.084
13	Lance Stroll	Aston Martin	11	1'11.979	1.041	0.080	166.898
14	George Russell	Williams	14	1'12.016	1.078	0.037	166.812
15	Sebastian Vettel	Aston Martin	10	1'12.078	1.140	0.062	166.669
16	Yuki Tsunoda	AlphaTauri	13	1'12.096	1.158	0.018	166.627
17	Fernando Alonso	Alpine	12	1'12.205	1.267	0.109	166.376
18	Nicholas Latifi	Williams	14	1'12.366	1.428	0.161	166.006
19	Nikita Mazepin	Haas	12	1'12.958	2.020	0.592	164.659
20	Mick Schumacher	Haas	0
View full results

What happened in Q2?

In Q2, the pole position-hunting protagonists eschewed the usual practice of running medium tyres – with all drivers sticking with the softs.

Verstappen led the way initially on 1m11.040s, which was narrowly pipped by Leclerc on 1m11.037s, before Sainz lowered the bar to 1m10.806s. On his second push lap, Verstappen produced a barrier-shaving 1m10.650s to retake the top spot.

Leclerc grabbed P1 back with a late lap of 1m10.597s, 0.053s faster than Verstappen, who fail to improve on his final run. Bottas did go faster on his final lap, getting within a tenth off the pace in third. Again, Hamilton was only P7 in this session, but did get almost two-tenths closer to the quickest time than he managed in Q1.

Monaco Grand Prix Q2 results: Leclerc fastest from Verstappen

Cla	Driver	Chassis	Laps	Time	Gap	Interval	km/h
1	Charles Leclerc	Ferrari	10	1'10.597			170.165
2	Max Verstappen	Red Bull	9	1'10.650	0.053	0.053	170.038
3	Valtteri Bottas	Mercedes	11	1'10.695	0.098	0.045	169.929
4	Carlos Sainz Jr.	Ferrari	10	1'10.806	0.209	0.111	169.663
5	Sergio Perez	Red Bull	10	1'11.019	0.422	0.213	169.154
6	Lando Norris	McLaren	9	1'11.031	0.434	0.012	169.126
7	Lewis Hamilton	Mercedes	9	1'11.116	0.519	0.085	168.924
8	Pierre Gasly	AlphaTauri	12	1'11.179	0.582	0.063	168.774
9	Sebastian Vettel	Aston Martin	10	1'11.309	0.712	0.130	168.466
10	Antonio Giovinazzi	Alfa Romeo	10	1'11.409	0.812	0.100	168.230
11	Esteban Ocon	Alpine	10	1'11.486	0.889	0.077	168.049
12	Daniel Ricciardo	McLaren	9	1'11.598	1.001	0.112	167.786
13	Lance Stroll	Aston Martin	9	1'11.600	1.003	0.002	167.782
14	Kimi Raikkonen	Alfa Romeo	10	1'11.642	1.045	0.042	167.683
15	George Russell	Williams	10	1'11.830	1.233	0.188	167.244
View full results

What happened in Q3?

In the top-10 shootout, Verstappen set the bar at 1m10.576s, 0.06s faster than Bottas. Leclerc wrested P1 away with a laptime of 1m10.3456s, 0.23s faster than Verstappen.

Sainz went P3 on 1m10.611s but had that stolen away by Bottas, who went for a second push lap, on 1m10.601s, with Norris in fifth.

On the final runs, Verstappen made an error at Portier on his first lap and was forced to abort. He was up on his fastest time on his final lap when poleman Leclerc shunted heavily at the exit of the Swimming Pool, bringing out the red flags and scuppering Verstappen's pole hopes.

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Bottas stayed third, ahead of Sainz, Norris, AlphaTauri’s Pierre Gasly, Hamilton (who clipped the barrier on the approach to Portier), Aston Martin’s Sebastian Vettel, Sergio Perez (whose Red Bull clipped the wall at the Swimming Pool) and Antonio Giovinazzi (Alfa Romeo).

Monaco Grand Prix Q3 results: Leclerc takes pole

Cla	Driver	Chassis	Laps	Time	Gap	Interval	km/h
1	Charles Leclerc	Ferrari	7	1'10.346			170.773
2	Max Verstappen	Red Bull	7	1'10.576	0.230	0.230	170.216
3	Valtteri Bottas	Mercedes	8	1'10.601	0.255	0.025	170.156
4	Carlos Sainz Jr.	Ferrari	7	1'10.611	0.265	0.010	170.132
5	Lando Norris	McLaren	7	1'10.620	0.274	0.009	170.110
6	Pierre Gasly	AlphaTauri	9	1'10.900	0.554	0.280	169.438
7	Lewis Hamilton	Mercedes	7	1'11.095	0.749	0.195	168.973
8	Sebastian Vettel	Aston Martin	6	1'11.419	1.073	0.324	168.207
9	Sergio Perez	Red Bull	7	1'11.573	1.227	0.154	167.845
10	Antonio Giovinazzi	Alfa Romeo	7	1'11.779	1.433	0.206	167.363
View full results