By Daily Sports on May 26, 2019

Lewis Hamilton snatched Monaco Grand Prix pole position from Mercedes team-mate Valtteri Bottas with his last lap of the session.

Hamilton, often on the back foot in qualifying, took pole by 0.086 seconds.

But the story of the day was in many ways Ferrari’s strategic error that saw Charles Leclerc knocked out in the first session.

Ferrari elected not to send Leclerc out for a second run, and the Monegasque will start 15th for his home race.

Red Bull’s Max Verstappen was third, ahead of Ferrari’s Sebastian Vettel, who was the man who knocked out Leclerc.

Vettel was struggling after a poor first run in first qualifying and needed to go out again to get past the first session.

But Ferrari did not see the danger facing Leclerc, despite the fact that his time at that stage was less than 0.2 secs quicker than Vettel’s.

Leclerc was delayed when he missed the weigh bridge and had to be pushed back by his mechanics for the car to be checked, but he said that had not been the cause of the problem.

A distraught Leclerc, who grew up in a flat just next to the main straight of the Monaco track, said: “I asked whether they were sure. They said we think we are. I said, ‘Shouldn’t we go again?’ I didn’t have any explanations yet in detail.

“Very difficult one to take – we had plenty of time to go out again. The weigh bridge was not the problem. We had the fuel to go again, we just needed to put some tyres on. I need some explanations.”

Ferrari are yet to say what happened.

Vettel, struggling all day after crashing in final practice, was 0.781secs off the pace, after hitting the wall at Tabac on his final run. (BBC)

•Photo shows Lewis Hamilton

Source Daily Sports

Posted May 26, 2019

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