Bright sunshine and pleasant conditions for Monaco Grand Prix qualifying: air temperature is 25, the track at 49.
Q1. Charles and Carlos go out on Soft tyres. The Monegasque sets a time of 1’14”074 and the Spaniard’s time is 1’15”006 as they set off for another lap. However, it has to be aborted as the session is red flagged after Sergio Perez hits the barrier at turn 1. With eleven minutes remaining the session resumes. Leclerc’s next lap is a 1’13”341 and Sainz stops the clocks in 1’13”533. Charles gets down to 1’12”912 and Carlos to 1’12”717 on a set of new Softs, with both of them making the cut to Q2.
Q2. New Softs for Charles, while Carlos keeps the set he ended Q1 with. On the first run, Leclerc posts a 1’12’347 and Sainz a 1’12”303. Both pit for new Softs and they lap in 1’12”103 and 1”12”291 respectively, to make the cut to the final shoot-out.
Q3. In the final part, both drivers have two sets of new Soft tyres available. Leclerc’s first run produces a 1’11”756 while Sainz stops the clocks in 1’11”729. They pit to change tyres, ready for one last shot. Charles posts a 1’11”471, which puts him momentarily on top of the time sheet, but Max Verstappen beats his time by a tenth and Fernando Alonso is also quicker, by just 22 thousandths. Carlos is fifth in 1’11”630, behind fourth placed Esteban Ocon.