Monaco Grand Prix: Qualifying Recap

Both drivers were unfortunate to not progress out of Q1 in qualifying as a late red flag stop, with just 2m11s left on the clock, meant conditions were less than favorable to advance with Ocon and Bearman searching for grip on track ahead of the checkered flag.

A significant crash in final practice for Bearman, who was unharmed, led to a valiant performance from the garage crew to turn around the British racer’s VF-26 – the team successfully tackling a raft of time-consuming changes to ensure they were ready for the opening round of knockout qualifying.

Running exclusively on the Pirelli P Zero Red soft tires throughout Q1, Ocon and Bearman were looking like they would comfortably progress into Q2 before the red flag stop for the stricken Audi of Gabriel Bortoleto effectively threw the session into a one lap shootout when it resumed. Ocon ultimately finished P17 thanks to an earlier effort of 1:14.722 from the Frenchman. Bearman exited in P19 having set a 1:14.814 lap.

Pole position went to Kimi Antonelli – the Italian currently on a run of four consecutive victories. Antonelli placed his Mercedes on the top spot with a 1:12.051 to best Max Verstappen of Red Bull Racing on 1:12.094.

Ollie Bearman:

“The guys worked tirelessly to put the car back together following FP3, and it was feeling so good, we should’ve still been out there. I got very unlucky and was on for a lap that would’ve easily gotten me into Q2 when the red flag struck. After the red flag, we queued up for two minutes, so when I got out there, I had no grip on the lap, and I was sliding around all over the place. I was on the limit, giving it everything I could, but there was just no grip. We’ve been doing prep laps throughout the weekend, but we couldn’t with the time left on the clock. I’m very disappointed.”

Esteban Ocon:

“The car was going to be good to progress further up high into Q2, and maybe Q3. The track was going to come to us as well, and I feel like I say this every time, but we were unlucky – we never catch a break. In my fast lap, I got traffic by two tenths already, then the red flag came, and we didn’t have enough time to warm up the tires, so we couldn’t improve – it's as simple as that. It’s a big shame for the whole team, as we did find performance from Friday to Saturday, it was quite positive, but we’ll never know now. We’ll see tomorrow what we can do.”

Ayao Komatsu, Team Principal:

“It’s pretty deflating and a tough one to take. I think Q1, operationally, was okay and especially Ollie was reasonably happy with the car. As the grip came up, from FP2 to quali, we made improvements. I feel sorry for everyone because with the speed we had, we definitely had the chance to get one car into Q3. In the midfield, the team I thought would be tough to fight with was Audi, but Bortoleto crashed, and Nico made a mistake in Q2, so you saw Lawson in Q3. Ollie was three and a half tenths quicker than him before the red flag. It’s a missed opportunity and because it’s Monaco and qualifying is everything, it’s very hard to take. 

"We have to take the positives that everyone worked so hard to get to this point, to get the car in this state, as well as the drivers. In terms of the car, there are several things we need to improve, as I feel the operating window of the car is not wide enough. In certain conditions, like FP3 and qualifying today, it wasn't bad, whereas FP1 wasn’t great. Every race, we’re learning, but we need to take all the lessons and improve the car. It feels like everything is on a knife-edge at the minute, and we can’t catch a break.”