F1: Leclerc – Sainz Lock Out The Front Row For 2022 Monaco GP In A Disrupted Qualifying

Charles Leclerc was on provisional pole when Sergio Perez oversteered into the wall, bring Q3 to an early end.

By 
Mihir R. Barve
| Published: 28-May-22 09:09 PM IST

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Charles Leclerc will start his home race in P1.

Qualifying for the 2022 Monaco GP came to an early end as Sergio Perez made a mistake putting his Red Bull car into the barriers. Right after the incident, the session was red flagged, leaving those on their final qualifying laps wanting for more, as with only 30 seconds on the clock the session was not restarted. This handed Charles Leclerc the pole position for his home race in Monaco, as he was already in provisional pole. Ferrari team mate Carlos Sainz Jr secured the first front row start of his F1 career, as his first Q3 lap was good enough to secure P2. However, he couldn’t avoid hitting Sergio Perez’s crashed car despite of yellow flags. If he receives another reprimand for this incident, he will be given a 10 place grid penalty since he has already had 3 reprimands this season.

In the dying seconds Perez hits the barriers at Portier and Sainz can’t avoid contact#MonacoGP #F1 pic.twitter.com/EpNO9CnhBl

— Formula 1 (@F1) May 28, 2022

Despite crashing out of Q3, Sergio Perez finished qualifying in 3rd position, ahead of teammate Max Verstappen who is currently the leading the World Championship by 6 points. Verstappen also won the 2021 Monaco GP and has won every race he has finished in this year, putting him a good chance for a great result tomorrow. Lando Norris also bagged an impressive 5th place on the grid ahead of fellow Englishman George Russel, who could only manage to put his upgraded Mercedes in P6. Fernando Alonso also impressed in P7 after a miserable qualifying for his home race last weekend, and will want to capitalize on this top 10 start given his recent luck, or lack of it. 

Championship leader Verstappen will start tomorrow’s race in P4.

Despite of the upgrades brought in last weekend, Hamilton’s struggles with his Mercedes W13 continued, and he could only find pace to finish P8 in the qualifying. Sebastian Vettel put in a great lap in Q2 to put him in Q3 and finished 9th, ahead of Esteban Ocon’s Alpinem making it 2 Alpines in the top 10.

Q1 also saw a late red flag as Yuki Tsunoda clipped a barrier and instead of a yellow flag, a red flag was shown due to a marshall error. This put the likes of Gasly and Zhou out in Q1 itself, while Tsunoda ironically made it to Q2 and narrowly missed out on Q3. 

Yuki Tsunoda clipped the barriers in Q1 triggering a red flag.

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Tomorrow will be an interesting race as both the championship protagonists find themselves quite apart on the grid. Leclerc will want to cash in his pole position to break the streak of bad luck in Monaco, as he is yet to finish a Grand Prix in the principality. The Monegasque also finds himself out of the lead of the championship for the first time this season, and a win can put him right back on top. Max Verstappen, though 4th on the grid, has a car that manages the tyres better in the race. Tomorrow’s strategy calls will be critical in deciding the outcome of the race, with there being a possibility of rain hitting the track at the time of the Grand Prix.

Qualifying Results – 2022 Monaco GP

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