Leclerc had led his teammate Carlos Sainz before the final laps in Q3, with his 1m11.376s as a pole reference time.
Perez appeared to be Red Bull’s best hope for pole after leading FP3 and leading Max Verstappen during qualifying and followed Leclerc in the final steering wheel with soft tires, the second set for the top three runners of the final segment.
Leclerc marked a purple sector in the first third of his last effort – he finished with the fastest time of the three based on his lap of 1m11.376s -, while the next Pérez could not reproduce the personal mark in that moment.
As Leclerc exited the tunnel, Perez lost the back of his Red Bull and crashed the right rear of his car into the barriers at the exit of Portier, after which Sainz also turned when he turned around. right and found the Red Bull shattered. .
Sainz, therefore, hit the right front wheel of Pérez’s car and also got stuck, with the red flags on and prevented any improvement or change of position late, as it was less than a minute from Q3 and not there were chances that it would restart.
This consolidated Leclerc’s second consecutive Monaco pole, with Sainz’s best time since the start of Q3, which put him at 0.225 seconds, with Pérez third thanks to his 1m11,629.
Carlos Sainz, Ferrari F1-75
Photo by: Carl Bingham / Motorsport Images
Verstappen ran a set of soft throughout everything as he opted to continue chasing time to the flag, and finished fourth and couldn’t improve – he had just set a personal best in the first sector which was 0.1 seconds of Leclerc’s first half there- due to the incident of his teammate.
Lando Norris finished fifth just before the leaders began their final laps, with George Russell sixth for Mercedes.
Fernando Alonso of Alpine was in seventh place, but he also suffered a late accident, finishing in Mirabeau’s barriers almost at the same time as Pérez and Sainz crashed down the hill in sector two.
Lewis Hamilton finished eighth, with Sebastian Vettel and Esteban Ocon completing the top 10.
Leclerc led the middle segment of the session, which presented a worrying moment for the Ferrari driver as he missed his call to visit the FIA scales with just over five minutes to go in Q2.
Luckily for Leclerc, he stopped in the pitlane before returning to his garage, so his mechanics pushed him back to be heavy, the result of which should mean he doesn’t get a sports penalty, since that returning to the Ferrari pits risked disqualification from qualifying. .
At the end of Q2, Yuki Tsunoda did not get the best personal best when it mattered and was eliminated in the 11th.
Sergio Pérez, Red Bull Racing RB18
Photo by: Carl Bingham / Motorsport Images
Valtteri Bottas jumped from 15 to 12 in his last race, with Kevin Magnussen and Mick Schumacher also setting the fastest times of the session in his last fliers.
They finished 13th and 15th, fitting in with McLaren’s Daniel Ricciardo, who also set a personal best at the end of Q2, but couldn’t do better than the 14th.
In Q1, which Leclerc also led, Tsunoda cut the inner wall on the fork and suffered an immediate puncture with just over two minutes of that segment, with the red flags as a result.
This caused a long queue at the end of the pitlane, as the riders below the top five at that time rushed to try to secure one last lap, with the evolution of the track an important factor in who advanced during the first sessions as the tire went down and drivers created confidence.
But gaps between the cars in the long snake coming out of the pitlane caused several pilots to miss the opportunity to even start a final flight, with Pierre Gasly and Zhou Guanyu eliminated as a result in 17th place. 20; as a result, the banking effort of the former slowly diminished. the order until Tsunoda’s AlphaTauri companion was knocked out with the opportunity to make one last effort.
Alex Albon had led the cars queuing at the end of the pitlane and managed to set a personal mark with his last lap, but was later pushed down when the others found time.
This was especially the case for the Tsunoda and the two McLaren drivers, who all jumped out of the relegation zone with their last laps in Q1 to leave Albon 16th and out.
Lance Stroll couldn’t make a better time in his last Q1 and was sent off, shouting on his team’s radio, in 18th place, ahead of Nicholas Latifi, who did his best for the final but couldn’t do it better than the 19th.