Sunday will see Kimi Raikkonen start from pole position for the first time since 2008 after the Ferrari driver dominated qualifying for the Formula 1 Grand Prix de Monaco 2017. Raikkonen was 0.043s quicker than team mate Sebastian Vettel, whose championship rival Lewis Hamilton could manage only 13th.
Mercedes’ Valtteri Bottas and Red Bull’s Max Verstappen will fill the second row of the grid, with Daniel Ricciardo in the second Red Bull and Toro Rosso’s Carlos Sainz immediately behind them.
Completing the top ten were Force India’s Sergio Perez, Haas’s Romain Grosjean, and the McLarens of Jenson Button and Stoffel Vandoorne, who take 15- and three-place grid penalties respectively.
Q2 saw Hamilton unable to break into the top ten and at a loss to explain his lack of pace. Then just as he looked set to improve, his elimination was settled when Vandoorne crashed in the dying moments in a near repeat of Ocon’s practice accident at the Swimming Pool.
Hamilton thus missed the cut for Q3, along with several others who were robbed of the chance to improve by Vandoorne’s off: Toro Rosso’s Daniil Kvyat, Renault’s Nico Hulkenberg, Haas’s Kevin Magnussen and Williams’ Felipe Massa.
Q1 accounted for Esteban Ocon, Force India having rebuilt his car just in time following his FP3 shunt, Renault’s Jolyon Palmer, Williams’s Lance Stroll and the Saubers of Pascal Wehrlein and Marcus Ericsson, the latter having shed his left-rear tyre at the end of the session.
F1.com
