Monaco Grand Prix: Fernando Alonso Narrowly Loses Pole To Max Verstappen

 

Max Verstappen narrowly picked up the pole position for Red Bull at Monaco Grand Prix qualifying, edging out Aston Martin's Fernando Alonso late into the final parts of Q3. 

Red Bull was left with the Dutchman to fight on for pole after his team-mate, Sergio Perez retired in Q1 following an accident. 

Fernando was set for the pole having Verstappen behind by two-tenth of a second until fews corners to the chequers flag where the Red Bull leapt ahead by the whisker in 0.084s. 

Losing to Verstappen saw the chance to pole one more time slid past Fernando who poled last at the event in 2007. However, he admitted the later part of the race was their "weakest" otherwise he would have secured his first pole since 2012. 

"We were increasing to an uncomfortable level of risk, let's say" said Fernando. "The last sector seems our weakest part of the circuit. We were, I think, eighth quickest in the last sector."

Ferrari's Charles Leclerc was also near edging out Fernando and was close with 0.022 seconds to finish third. However, he was dropped to sixth for three-place penalty served him for infringing on Alpine Esteban Ocon in the tunnel. 

Mercedes' upgraded car could not work out the magic for Lewis Hamilton as he expected ahead of the weekend and finished sixth but will start in fifth over penalty served Leclerc.