Czech stamped on the tunnel entrance, a sainz who couldn’t dodge Red Bull Y Verstappen crazy, stuck at that point as happens every morning at any roundabout in the Principality. the very Alonso had just touched the wards with the Alpine at turn 5. Meanwhile, whistling, Leclerc not only got rid of the mess, a little less and had already got out of the car to celebrate with his mechanics a sweet pole position at home, in the Monaco GPthe most important on the calendar and the one that the young local eagerly pursues since he is an F1 driver.
He has never scored in this circuit, not even in Formula 2, and counts all his appearances by accidents. Even the exhibitions, he recently crashed a Ferrari that belonged to Niki Lauda due to a failure in the braking system. But this year Charles is a new man, the quiet guy who learns from his mistakes and doesn’t trip over the same stone twice, even if he invents new mistakes like Imola’s. The Ferrari ’16’ was intractable on the stellar Saturday of Monte Carloalthough he met two tough rivals: Sainz and Pérez.
The man from Madrid is comfortable on this circuit, where the oversteer of the F1-75 is anecdotal because there are no curves that lend themselves to it, and he held his teammate’s pulse to achieve second position on the grid. And the Mexican, impressive, was at times the only one capable of standing up to Charles outside the Ferrari garage, evidencing one of Verstappen’s worst evenings in memory at one lap. Q3 had to come for Leclerc to find almost three tenths and Sainz found Hamilton, who spoiled a lap of almost pole.
The result was logical, but few expected the outcome: Pérez crashed in the final attempt when he was heading towards the tunnel, losing the rear axle. Four seconds later came Carlos, who found himself face to face with the RB18 and also spun, with a slight shock that does not seem serious for the mechanics. Later Max would appear, visibly angry that the first sector of his was good. Red flag, it is necessary (in Q1 there was a fictitious one due to a touch from Tsunoda), and everyone to parc fermé. The script that Leclerc is writing this weekend may end with the perfect ending, a win at home, but a good start from Sainz or a brave strategy from Red Bull can upset those plans. The good news, very good, is that Carlos is where he should be.
Alonso will start seventh, was aggressive and aspired to fifth from Q1 with laps that were not within the reach of Ocon (10th). He put the Alpine where he hadn’t been seen in the last few days. Too bad Norris sneaked in at the last minute, the Englishman was sick, and a good Russell with the Mercedes, the silver arrow was also sick. In any case, the two-time champion aspires to good points in the circuit that offers the fewest crazy races on the calendar, in exchange for a qualifying with a tremendous end. Hamilton and Vettel will start just behind the Spaniard. There are carats on this grill.
Stars in Monte Carlo
Not much should happen for the race, this is Monaco, but anything can happen thanks to the 60% chance of a storm at race time (15:00 CET, Dazn F1). In addition, this year you can choose the starting tire, so perhaps some brave man tries to change the established order in desperation with an irreverent strategy. There will be full in the stands, where only about 25,000 fans fit, also on the balconies and houseboats. There is LeBron James, Sergio Ramos, Zidane, Conor McGregor, Ryan Gosling or Ricky Martin, among many other members of the VIP list for Sunday. But this is not Miami, here the water that rocks the yachts is authentic and the real stars are the twenty who play the guy between the guardrails.
