Ferrari denied Monaco Grand Prix pole as Charles Leclerc slams wall | F1 | Sport

Charles Leclerc slammed the wall with the rear of his Ferrari on his final desperate attempt to secure pole position at his home race. It was instead secured by Kimi Antonelli who threatens to extend his championship lead further still and win the Monaco Grand Prix for the first time in his nascent Formula 1 career.

Ferrari were the pre-session favourites after dominating Friday practice, but neither home hero Leclerc nor Lewis Hamilton could live up to that billing. Max Verstappen looked like he had secured pole position ahead of them, until Antonelli completed his final run and edged the Red Bull racer out.

Mercedes team-mate and title rival George Russell was only sixth fastest, four tenths of a second off the pace set by the Italian teenager. And with overtaking always difficult on the streets of Monte Carlo, the Brit will fear losing a significant amount more ground in the title race on Sunday.

Q1 brought little drama but did claim its first victim when Gabriel Bortoleto turned into the Nouvelle Chicane just a split-second too early, clipping the barrier with his front-left wheel and breaking the suspension. Audi looked very strong in practice and so that small mistake led to a huge missed opportunity for the Brazilian.

Haas were the big losers of that first part of qualifying as they saw both cars surprisingly fail to escape the cut-off. Britain’s Oliver Bearman might have avoided that fate had he not suffered a huge snap of oversteer on his final run of Q1 – he avoided the wall, but lost too much time and exited qualifying early.

Team-mate Esteban Ocon was also unhappy to find himself in the bottom six, swearing and asking “are you serious?” when his race engineer Laura Mueller informed him that Carlos Sainz had leapfrogged him on his final run. Points look beyond the American team now, given overtaking is rare on this Monte Carlo street circuit.

Bortoleto made it through to Q2 but, because his car was broken, there were only five other drivers in danger of failing to make the top 10. Arvid Lindblad was slowest of the 15 cars on track while Franco Colapinto only went one better to end his streak of out-qualifying team-mate Pierre Gasly. Nico Hulkenberg was 13th, his wait for a first Q3 appearance of 2026 continuing, while the two Williams cars also missed out on the final part of qualifying.

Leclerc suffered a significant snap of oversteer on his first run of Q3 and looked to be in danger of not being in contention for pole. He then replied with a strong effort on his second run which put him on provisional pole, though he was soon knocked off top spot as the track improved and lap times fell further.

Verstappen then jumped to the top and Hamilton’s final effort was good enough only for the second place behind him. And that became only third when Antonelli produced one of his most impressive qualifying laps yet to edge out the Dutchman by 0.043 seconds and put himself in prime position for what will be a fifth Grand Prix victory in a row if he converts on Sunday.