Key events
Hamilton four tenths quicker than Q2, goes top briefly, but Antonelli goes quickest, and Verstappen fractionally slower than the Mercedes!
Norris and Piastri doing 1:12s but Antonelli is flying.
Go for Q3. Lando Norris out in front.
Brown surprised by Russell but expects him to get it together in Q3. Anthony Davidson highlights a lack of trust going into some corners.
“An interesting finish” to Q2, observes Zak Brown.
Ferrari fourth and sixth. If you can make sense of this, email philip.cornwall@theguardian.com
Q2 elimination list
As expected Albon, Sainz, Hulkenburg, Colapinto, Lindblad and Bortoleto going out.
And Verstappen goes fastest and Hadjar third, split by Antonelli. Excellent show from Red Bull.
Time almost up. Final laps. Albon, Sainz, Hulkenburg, Colapinto, Lindblad and Bortoleto going out.
We know the top eight who are going through, with Hadjar – in seventh – joining the big seven. Two places left up for grabs.
Gasly knocks Hulkenburg into the bottom six.
The drop zone is Sainz, Albon, Gasly, Lindblad, Colapinto and Bortoleto.
Leclerc can’t go better than fourth, Hamilton sixth. Are Ferrari sandbagging or struggling?
Russell, again, the struggler of the big seven, almost a second down.
OK. Antonelli is fastest now. It is not anyone’s game but there are lot of contenders here.
Leclerc goes into the 1:12s, and then Norris pips him!
Verstappen hits the front, 1:13.2o5.
Only 14 cars out there. Brundle points out that here, with a short lap, life gets a lot easier when you have fewer cars on the track.
Is there any better sight in F1 than the hairpin?
And we are go for Q2, with some bleeping as Carlos Sainz gets an unsafe release as Max Verstappen goes past.
Ollie Bearman bleeped his way back to the pits after missing out. The team console him that the red flag was just misfortune, but replays show he was struggling to control the car.
Hats off to Nico Hulkenberg, who made sixth, ahead of Piastri and Russell from the big seven.
Q1 elimination list
Goodbye to Ocon, Perez, Bearman, Bottas, Alonso and Stroll. Plus Bortoleto after his crash.
Estaban Ocon is the man at risk and is bumped down as Carlos Sainz goes up to 10th!
It’s a dash for survival. Bottas stays 20th.
Thirteen cars out, eight in, plus Bortoleto.
Back we go on to the track.
Bortoleto is through to Q2 but out, Brundle observes.
Lewis Hamilton’s girlfriend, Kim Kardashian, is adding to the lustre of the weekend.
We will be resuming with 2min 11sec left in Q1, at 14:22 BST/15:22 CET.
Talking of red flags, a word of caution: if ever you holiday in the south of France and take an eight-year-old on a day trip to Monte Carlo, if you climb up to the prince’s palace, do not feed the child biscuits without keeping a very close eye on the seagulls, ready to scare them off. Prepare to buy plasters and antiseptic cream if you do not heed this advice.
Red flag. The sextet in the drop zone will be sweating to get over the line and get in another flying lap.
Bortoleto into the barriers! Perez, Bearman, Sainz, Bottas, Alonso, Stroll in the drop zone.
Russell has at least dragged himself up to the top seven.
Antonelli then Verstappen knock Norris down, Russell is now 11th, safe to get into Q2 but luckily he has a while to go.
Norris was looking very happy in that interview earlier, the serene smile of a world champion, even if this season is not going to plan. He is certainly enjoying qualifying so far.
Antonelli can only go third, and Hamilton quickly replaces him. But Kimi will be a lot happier than Russell, who is down in 10th.
Norris takes 1st for a moment but Leclerc snatches it back. Piastri is third and McLaren must be pleased that they are being competitive even if nothing is remotely set.
The two Red Bulls are struggling a bit and Hadjar has been sounding off. The Frenchman can go only ninth, while Verstappen gets stuck in traffic but is still fifth.
Leclerc goes nicely, fastest ahead of Norris then Antonelli and Hamilton. Piastri down in sixth.
Ollie Bearman goes quickest but only 1:15.9. Antonelli was in the 1:13s in FP3.
And we are go.
Martin Brundle mixing his metaphors, talking about wringing the track’s neck and thrashing it to get a time out of it. Me neither, for either.
Everyone is in his car, ready to go. It’s the tensest of times.
The man on pole has won 33 out of 71 races, David Croft intones, and not since David Coulthard overtook Juan Pablo Montoya in 2002 has the pole sitter not led at the end of lap 1.
Monaco is made for montages. Sky enjoying themselves, with victors diving in the swimming pool, champagne being sprayed everywhere, F1’s glamour on full show.
Jenson Button is speculating that any of the top seven could take pole. “It’s all about qualifying,” says Bernie Collins, before plumping for Max Verstappen.
What of George Russell, the pre-season favourite? He trailed his Mercedes teammate Antonelli by 0.763sec this morning and by almost half a second in FP1, going narrowly faster in FP2. The 28-year-old, who devoted the off-season to his new hobbies of breaking mirrors and walking under ladders, must hope for a change of luck after his tussle for the lead with Antonelli in Montreal ended in engine failure when the Briton held the lead, leaving the Italian with a 43-point lead in the title race. With 10 minutes to go, here’s a reminder of the standings:
1. Kimi Antonelli (IT) Mercedes 131 points.
2. George Russell (GB) Mercedes 88pts
3. Charles Leclerc (Mon) Ferrari 75pts
4. Lewis Hamilton (GB) Ferrari 72pts
5. Lando Norris (GB) McLaren 58pts
6. Oscar Piastri (Aus) McLaren 48pts
7. Max Verstappen (Neth) Red Bull 43pts
8. Pierre Gasly (Fr) Alpine 20pts
9. Oliver Bearman (GB) Haas 18pts
10. Liam Lawson (NZ) Racing Bulls 16pts
11. Franco Colapinto (Arg) Alpine 15pts
12. Isack Hadjar (Fr) Red Bull 14pts
12. Carlos Sainz (Sp) Williams 6pts
14. Arvid Lindblad (GB) Racing Bulls 5pts
15. Gabriel Bortoleto (Br) Audi 2pts
16. Esteban Ocon (Fr) Haas 1pt
17. Alexander Albon (Tha) Williams 1pt
Constructors’ standings
1. Mercedes 219pts
2. Ferrari 147pts
3. McLaren 106pts
4. Red Bull 57pts
5. Alpine 35pts
6. Racing Bulls 21pts
7. Haas 19pts
8. Williams 7pts
9. Audi 2pts
10. Aston Martin 0pts
11. Cadillac 0pts
Is there a better name for a nationality than Monegasque? Will the highlight of my weekend be typing “Monegasque” and “idiosyncrasies” correctly at the first time of trying?
Leclerc is talking to Martin Brundle and his earliest memory of watching the F1. He reckons it was Michael Schumacher in 2001, “and the red car won”. The German, of course, was in the Ferrari.
The Monegasque has the boost going into the race with the boost of signing a new contract. Will he get a win to celebrate?
The narrow streets of the principality have always made overtaking difficult, but there have even been suggestions that the new regime may give Monaco a helping hand. In the week, Leclerc told roadandtrack.com: “I think Monaco is actually going to be one of those races where these cars might be very good.” Isack Hadjar agreed with the Monegasque: “Smaller cars, lighter – I think it should be more fun that it was last season.” 2026’s vehicles are 10cm narrower than 2025’s.
Still, qualifying is likely to be absolutely vital. Lando Norris has been telling Sky about taking pole last year, and the amazing feeling of driving here. “The thing is in Monaco what makes it insane is you have to rely more than ever on your subconscious … You get to the point where some corners, you see the slowmos where we’re hitting the wall by just that little bit. A little bit more and you are off and you are in the wall and you are out. And those are the moments where you almost briefly shut your eyes.”
Sadly, it is to be Ferrari’s day, then their team principal, Fred Vasseur, will not be there to see it. The Associated Press reports that he is “under observation at a local medical facility” and will not be at the track for Monaco Grand Prix qualifying on Saturday:
The Italian team did not specify any details of the 58-year-old French racing executive’s condition.
“Fred Vasseur will not be present at the circuit today. Following some medical checks, Fred will remain under observation at a local medical facility,” Ferrari said.
“No further medical information will be provided. We wish Fred a speedy recovery and look forward to seeing him back at the track soon.”
Vasseur has led Ferrari’s Formula 1 team since 2023 and was handed a multi-year contract extension last year.
Vasseur had been trying to play down his team’s prospects, telling Formula1.com on Friday:
“I don’t care about this kind of approach or rumours. We have to do the job. It’s a very long way in Monaco from Friday, first to the quali, then to the race.
“The most difficult [thing] is that you have to anticipate the evolution of the track, the evolution of the grip, and you have to be always one session ahead. This is a real challenge for the team and for the drivers.”
And while the Ferraris did top Friday’s practice times – Leclerc fastest in the first session, Hamilton in the second – Antonelli went quickest on Saturday morning.
Preamble
Gambling is a mug’s game but betting odds can be informative. Looking at one bookies on Friday night, at 1-2, Kimi Antonelli was not yet a prohibitive favourite to win the drivers’ championship but George Russell was next best at 9-4, with Lando Norris 14-1 to retain his title, and Charles Leclerc 20-1. However, narrow the focus to this weekend’s party by the Med and it was Antonelli who was 14-1, with Leclerc 5-6 favourite. Nothing you are about to see is likely to tell you anything about what is going to happen across the rest of the season, unless Antonelli overturns those Monaco Grand Prix odds.
All F1 circuits are different, despite the off-the-shelf feel in the Middle East, but Monaco is the outlier’s outlier. The street circuits generally have more idiosyncrasies than those F1 tracks simply going about their day jobs but the twists and slopes of the principality are unlike anything else. It’s as if one of the major cricket venues did not just have one tree in the middle of it, in the manner of Canterbury and its lime (RIP), but an avenue here and a copse (from Silverstone?) there.
As a result, a lot of the issues over this season’s cars can be parked for a week. No one will be complaining about being unable to drive flat-out, as the necessary braking will deliver all the electrical recharge needed and the straights are far shorter than elsewhere. This plays to Ferrari’s strengths and negates Mercedes’s, hence those odds on the local lad.
Plenty of sportspeople move to Monte Carlo for tax reasons the climate, but Leclerc is a born-and-bred Monegasque. The 28-year-old – whose late father drove in the French Formule 3 – grew up on these streets, watching grands prix. Aged eight and nine he would have seen Fernando Alonso win, and as a 10-year-old, Lewis Hamilton. In 2024 Leclerc became the first hometown GP winner in Monte Carlo since Louis Chiron in 1931. It is unlikely to be Ferrari’s or Leclerc’s year, but this could be their weekend. Qualifying for Sunday’s race gets under way at 3pm BST; join me for more buildup from 2.30pm.
