Raikkonen on pole in Monaco, Hamilton in the midfield

  • Published on 27 May 2017 14:48
  • comments 4
  • By: Fergal Walsh

Kimi Raikkonen has secured his first pole position since the 2008 French Grand Prix after setting a lap time of 1:12.178. The Finn will line up ahead of ahead of Sebastian Vettel, who couldn't match his teammate but will line-up on the front row.

Lewis Hamilton's qualifying ended in Q2 after the Brit struggled with his car, and failed to improve as he was forced down to drive through a yellow flag on his final lap. The other Mercedes of Valtteri Bottas will start from P3.

Max Verstappen out-qualified his teammate, and the Dutchman will line-up in fourth. Ricciardo follows in fifth while a sublime effort saw Carlos Sainz finish the session in sixth position. Sergio Perez was the only Force India in Q3 and will line up seventh on the grid tomorrow.

Romain Grosjean was eighth, while the McLaren-Honda's of Stoffel Vandoorne and Jenson Button were ninth and tenth, however, penalties will send them further down the order for tomorrow's race.

Q1

The cars were queuing at the end of the pitlane in an attempt to post a lap early and be safe for the next stage of qualifying. The Ferrari's of Kimi Raikkonen and Sebastian Vettel were the first to set lap times, however, they weren't particularly fast as they were building up heat into the ultra soft compound.

Raikkonen's first fast time as a 1:23.4, which was immediately beaten by Vettel who went two-tenths faster. Valtteri Bottas then set his hot lap and slotted in behind the Mercedes, while Hamilton set a time that put him P4. He was complaining of his rear tyres overheating throughout the session.

Sergio Perez in the Force India was next and climbed up into fifth and at the same moment, Esteban Ocon was seen getting back into his car with the team apparently fixing the damage suffered at the end of the third practice session when he stuck the car in the barriers.

There was a surprise as Max Verstappen then shot into P1 and set consecutive fastest laps. Daniel Ricciardo also got his car in the mix but was a little slower than his teammate. Ericsson, right at the end of the session clipped his rear tyre out of the tunnel and was forced to park trackside.

Drivers out in Q1 - Ocon, Palmer, Stroll, Wehrlein, Ericsson

Q2

Much like the first part of qualifying, cars queued at the end of the pitlane making for a very busy track when the green light showed. While the Mercedes' went on a warm up lap, Raikkonen went for a fast lap straight away and set a time of 1:12.7. On Hamilton's fastest lap, he almost crashed at the top of the hill but got away with it.

Vettel slotted in behind his teammate into P2, while the top 5 all set their times within half a second of each other. Verstappen went close to P1, his best time 8 thousandths of a second behind. Sainz jumped up to eighth and secured his place in the final session.

There was drama right at the end of the session as Hamilton, who was struggling with the car, failed to improve. The McLaren of Stoffel Vandoorne hit the barriers and crashed out, meaning Hamilton who was on his final lap in the drop zone, was out. It's the first time that Hamilton failed to make it into Q3 on pace alone since 2013.

Drivers out after Q2 - Kvyat, Hulkenberg, Magnussen, Hamilton, Massa

Q3

Raikkonen headed out and started the session by setting a Raikkonen sets a 1:12.2. Ricciardo was next to set a time but was over half a second down on the Iceman. Vettel also couldn't get near and put himself into P3.

Bottas was provisionally P4 before all the cars went back out for their final run. Raikkonen went even quicker and set a time of 1:12.1. Bottas couldn't get close which meant we were definitely in for a non-Mercedes pole position.

Vettel pushed on his final lap but despite going purple in sector one, he could only set the second fastest time and missed out on pole position by half a tenth of a second. After Ferrari claimed their first one-two start in nine years in Russia, they've claimed another one here, around the historic streets of Monaco.

 

MC Monte Carlo - 27 May 2017

Replies (4)

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  • Congrats to Raikkonen, nice job

    • + 0
    • May 27 2017 - 15:24
  • Mega effort from Kimi today. Maybe Grandad has still got it after all :)

    • + 0
    • May 27 2017 - 15:27
  • A good session, very exciting, as Monaco Qualis usually is. Nice to see Kimi performing so well, its such a pity that he is so inconsistent, because he is so bloody fast when he is in his better swings. Ferrari really must do the best of this situation, because a golden opportunity like this might not come again this season. Also nice to see McLaren perform so well, just a pity Vandoorne crashed and Button has a penalty, but still.

    • + 0
    • May 27 2017 - 16:13
  • Squirrel10

    Posts: 36

    Awesome lap from Kimi, promises of a good (for Monaco) race tomorrow. Hopefully LH won't have fallen over his quivering bottom lip by then

    • + 0
    • May 27 2017 - 17:28

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