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Monaco, May 25 (IANS) Ferrari's Charles Leclerc charged his way to pole position in the Monaco Grand Prix with a stunning qualifying display on home soil, getting the better of McLaren rival Oscar Piastri and Ferrari teammate Carlos Sainz in Saturday’s all-important qualifying sessions.
Leclerc avoided any slip-ups to safely make it through Q1 and Q2 before unleashing his full potential in Q3, where he provisionally posted a time of 1m 10.418s and then bettered it with an electric 1m 10.270s – a target none of his rivals could beat.
Piastri went on to put his McLaren in second spot, ahead of Sainz and teammate Lando Norris, while reigning world champion Max Verstappen had to settle for sixth after hitting the wall at Sainte Devote on his final qualifying lap. It means the Dutchman’s run of successive pole positions comes to an end -– having claimed the previous eight in a row and drawn level with Ayrton Senna in the all-time list -– and leaves him with plenty of work to do on race day.
Mercedes drivers George Russell and Lewis Hamilton will sandwich Verstappen on the grid in fifth and seventh respectively, as RB’s Yuki Tsunoda, Williams’s Alex Albon and Alpine’s Pierre Gasly all starred to reach Q3. Esteban Ocon could not match the pace of teammate Gasly as he narrowly missed the Q2 cut en route to 11th in the second of the Alpine machines, while recent qualifying star Nico Hulkenberg had to settle for 12th after briefly leading the way in the early minutes of Q1.
Mirroring Ocon’s experience, Daniel Ricciardo could do no more than 13th and had to watch Tsunoda lead RB’s charge in the pole shootout, as Aston Martin’s Lance Stroll and the other Haas of Kevin Magnussen completed the Q2 order. A dramatic first qualifying phase, which brought several traffic-related incidents and plenty of squabbling for track position, claimed two big names in the form of Fernando Alonso and Perez, who will line up back in 16th and 18th respectively for Sunday’s Grand Prix.
Logan Sargeant is set to start between the aforementioned Aston Martin and Red Bull drivers in his Williams, while Kick Sauber’s weekend at the back of the field continued with Valtteri Bottas and Zhou Guanyu ending qualifying as the slowest runners.
--IANS
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