Max Verstappen took his first Monaco Grand Prix Pole position for Red Bull-Honda in a dramatic knockout qualifying session which saw the Dutchman take full advantage of a circuit that kept getting faster as the day progressed while stirring up the running order throughout each round. The circuit had been improving as Alpha Romeo’s Guanyu Zhou had just taken provisional pole with 11 minutes remaining in the Q1 session. Upon restart, Fernando Alonso took his Aston Martin to the top of the timing chart with a 1m12.886s lap, which was followed by Alpha Tauri’s Yuki Tsunoda with a 1m12.262s lap around the evolving circuit. Q2 qualifying saw Verstappen jump to the top of the timing charts, more than 1.5s quicker on a circuit improving with each lap. While the McLaren mechanics raced to repair the damage on Norris’ car, Q3 was underway with Alonso setting a fastest time of 1m11.706, and Alpine’s Esteban Ocon taking a fast lap of 1m11.553s with under four minutes left in the session.

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