"It's very special. It makes me so happy. "The weekend went well so far, and the last lap before red flag was really good," Charles Leclerc, a local child, said. He will start ahead Spaniard Carlos Sanz (Ferrari teammate), in the first race.
The last qualifying session was cut short by a red flag. It happened after Sergio Perez crashed against the safety barriers in Mexico. Sainz, who was just a few seconds away from the end, took Sainz to the tunnel entrance.
"It's very damaged, and what made it worse is the hit Carlos gave to us, so we have quite a lot of damage. Perez said that it would be fine tomorrow, but we will have to wait and see.
The Mexican still takes third place in the 7th round, just ahead of Max Verstappen (his Red Bull teammate), who is currently leading the championship. Christian Horner, Red Bull boss, admitted that pole wasn't within our reach today. "Charles was tough, which is a shame, because both of our drivers could've improved," he said. .
The Monegasque track is not conducive for overtaking on narrow streets so the positions on the grid are critical, even though it could rain at the start of Sunday's race. Six rounds later, Verstappen won four and Leclerc two respectively. The reigning world champion is just six lengths ahead in the drivers' standings.
Red Bull is currently ahead of Ferrari by 26 points, buoyed last week in Spain by their 44 points.
Leclerc's challenge will be to finish the race, before he can win tomorrow at home. Since 2017, Leclerc has had to abandon the race because of technical difficulties or clashes. "His" circuit has not been kind to him so far.
Leclerc made a mistake in qualifying and caused serious damage to his car, just like Perez. The Ferrari's driveshaft was damaged and Leclerc couldn't compete in the Monegasque's GP at home.
He said, "I hope that I can finally finish the Grand Prix at home." Briton Lando Norris, McLaren's Briton Lando Norris, will start the race from the third row along with George Russell (Mercedes), who was 6th in qualifying.
The Spaniard Fernando Alonso, 7th, and Briton Lewis Hamilton (Mercedes), 8, respectively, will be followed by Sebastian Vettel (Aston Martin), 9, and Esteban Ocon, 10th. A few minutes earlier in qualifying, Q1 was stopped by a red signal after Yuki Tsunoda (AlphaTauri), hit a safety barrier.
Pierre Gasly from France, who was in great shape at the beginning of the weekend but who felt the full brunt the impact of the flag's arrival, was not pleased with his teammate. He could not complete his final fast lap in order to participate in the second part, and will begin Sunday from 17th place.
