Monaco: Kimi Raikkonen of Ferrari took pole position for the Monaco Grand Prix as Lewis Hamilton suffered a dramatic early exit.
The Briton will start Sunday’s race from 13th on the grid after a ragged qualifying session, during which he complained frequently about his Mercedes and narrowly avoided a major accident.
Despite that he looked on course to make the top 10 shootout until Stoffel Vandoorne’s accident forced him to abandon his final flying lap. Teammate Valterri Bottas fared little better. The Finn was forced to settle for third as the Ferraris proved too strong at the front.
Raikkonen eventually got the better of teammate Sebastian Vettel to claim his first pole since the 2008 French Grand Prix – 128 races ago.
The Red Bull pair of Max Verstappen and Daniel Ricciardo were fourth and fifth respectively, as Carlos Sainz, Sergio Perez, Romain Grosjean, Jenson Button and Vandoorne completed the top 10.
Despite that impressive effort, Button will start last after receiving a 15-place grid penalty for a series of overnight engine changes.
Mercedes were largely anonymous from the Monaco party during the first part of qualifying as Red Bull and Ferrari traded fastest laps. All four of their drivers held top spot at some point, with Dutch teenager Verstappen landing the first blow in Q1 when less than two tenths separated those four.
Hamilton was only tenth fastest at that stage, six tenths off the pace after complaining of overheating rear tyres over the team radio.
Hamilton endured a ragged second session, narrowly avoiding the barriers at Massenet after losing control.
He told his team over the radio that ‘something was just not right with the car’ after another botched attempt.
There was just time for one last shot with a minute left and Hamilton was three tenths up on the time he required to progress with just a few corners left to go. But just up the road Vandoorne sent his McLaren into the barriers on the exit of the Swimming Pool chicane and with yellow flags waving, the Briton was forced to slow down.
Raikkonen landed first blood in the pole position shootout, as he broke the all-time lap record with a 1:12.296. He improved that by a tenth on his second run and it was just enough to see off Vettel. The German was quicker through the first sector but lost time in the middle part of the lap to agonisingly finish four one-hundredths of a second slower.
Kimi Raikkonen gives the thumbs up signal after achieving his first pole position at Monaco in nine years.
Agencies
