“Now many countries want an F1 race maybe they should split into two tours,” emails Phillip Haran. “A classic set of races and a sports washing set. There could be two world champions or a combined overall one where the three worst races are dropped.”
It’s an idea.
Matt Doherty and Eric Dier, of Tottenham, are in Monaco!
“My Mum’s Dutch so I have to go for Max,” says Doherty.
Good trivia.
Dier chips in: “We’re with Red Bull so hopefully the Red Bulls can do a good job and get in front of the Ferraris.”
“Before the cameras were on you said something completely different,” laughs Nico Rosberg.
“They [Red Bull] will be upset with me!
“Lewis,” Dier concedes.
“I think if I can stay in P5 I’ll be very happy,” says Lando Norris of McLaren tells Natalie Pinkham of Sky Sports. “We’ll keep our heads down.”
Meanwhile, there is rain falling on the circuit! It’s coming down quite significantly according to the presenters. Will that affect starting strategy?
“Monaco is always different, you need to concentrate. Starting at the front is the best thing you can have here,” says the former Ferrari driver Felipe Massa, who has his fingers crossed for a Scuderia win.
Just over 15 minutes until kick-off.
Alain Prost is asked what advice he’d have for the young drivers on the grid: “I don’t think they need any advice. What they are showing, as young drivers, is really exceptional. They know what they are doing since a few years now. I am very interested to see how they can handle a race like this one, especially if it’s a little bit wet.”
“You only want to speak to the frontrunners, you don’t speak to me when I’m ‘down here’ [on the grid],” quips Toto Wolff of Mercedes when Martin Brundle collars him. “It’s good, it’s good to get it wrong sometimes,” Wolff adds of the team’s current struggles.
“Really?” Brundle replies.
“Yes, it’s going to set us up for more success in the future,” replies Wolff.
On Hamilton, he adds: “You can see the maturity. he’s coping really well … he’s a team player.”
I should point out that these entertaining quotes are all courtesy of Sky Sports F1.
Ferrari team principal Mattia Binotto: “Hopefully it’s not going to rain … it’s good to be on the front row … we will do whatever we can, as a team, to get the maximum out of the race … let’s get a good start, keep the positions, which is never easy, and we’ll see what we can do then.”
Pierre Gasly (Scuderia AlphaTauri) speaks: “From our radar it’s not going to rain … but I told the whole team to do the rain dance, because that’s what we need.”
“The favourite’s got to be Charles [Leclerc], but we’ve got to go for it,” Christian Horner tells Brundle.
Lewis Hamilton said only a wet race could spare him from more misery at the Monaco Grand Prix.
As home favourite Charles Leclerc romped to his third pole in as many races, Hamilton slumped to eighth, two places behind Mercedes team-mate George Russell.
“I am not doing any dancing but I do want it to rain so I am not just driving around in the dry in eighth,” said Hamilton.
“You cannot overtake so I am hoping that the weather plays up and maybe we can do a different strategy. We were not very good in the low-speed corners at the last race so I anticipated it would be difficult, but it is worse than we anticipated because it is super-bouncy.
“It would be nice to have some luck for once. I have been having bad luck all year so it is bound to stop at some stage.” (PA)
Martin Brundle’s legendary gridwalk is go, go go!
Grid positions after qualifying:
1 Charles Leclerc (Mon) Ferrari 1min 11.376secs
2 Carlos Sainz Jr. (Spa) Ferrari 1:11.601
3 Sergio Perez (Mex) Red Bull 1:11.629
4 Max Verstappen (Ned) Red Bull 1:11.666
5 Lando Norris (Gbr) McLaren 1:11.849
6 George Russell (Gbr) Mercedes GP 1:12.112
7 Fernando Alonso (Spa) Alpine 1:12.247
8 Lewis Hamilton (Gbr) Mercedes GP 1:12.560
9 Sebastian Vettel (Ger) Aston Martin 1:12.732
10 Esteban Ocon (Fra) Alpine 1:13.047
11 Yuki Tsunoda (Jpn) Scuderia AlphaTauri 1:12.797
12 Valtteri Bottas (Fin) Alfa Romeo Racing 1:12.909
13 Kevin Magnussen (Den) Haas F1 1:12.921
14 Daniel Ricciardo (Aus) McLaren 1:12.964
15 Mick Schumacher (Ger) Haas F1 1:13.081
16 Alexander Albon (Tha) Williams 1:13.611
17 Pierre Gasly (Fra) Scuderia AlphaTauri 1:13.660
18 Lance Stroll (Can) Aston Martin 1:13.678
19 Nicholas Latifi (Can) Williams 1:14.403
20 Guanyu Zhou (Chn) Alfa Romeo Racing 1:15.606
‘It feels amazing’ – Leclerc’s verdict on snaffling pole:
Preamble
Max Verstappen, Red Bull’s world champion, leads the drivers’ championship by six points but Charles Leclerc of Ferrari, currently second in the standings, is on pole in Monaco this afternoon.
Is today the day that the Monegasque Leclerc gets a victory on home roads? He was on pole last year, despite a crash in qualifying, but it turned out the shunt had done for his gearbox, and he could not even take his place on the grid to start the race.
Perhaps his luck will be better today. It’s famously difficult to overtake in Monaco, so the Ferrari driver is nicely primed to leapfrog his rival Verstappen and take the lead in the race for the 2022 title. But rain isn’t out of the question, and there will (hopefully) be some other elements of intrigue to spice up what Ferrari are hoping will be a procession. It’s on!
Lights out: 2pm UK time/3pm Monaco time