© Getty Images

A tight, competitive Monaco QualifyingThe Bulls will be looking to match attacking race pace with strategic creativity after a tight, competitive Monaco qualifying session sees Max line up 4th on the grid tomorrow and Yuki will start 12th

FP3

Max made the most of the C5 Medium tyre in the final hour of practice, taking P2, 0.280s over the session’s fastest man, Charles Leclerc who topped the timesheet with a Soft Tyre lap of 1:19.953.

Fastest of all on the yellow-banded tyres, Max made the switch to the C6 soon after the halfway point but despite setting a purple time in the first sector the Dutchman couldn’t extract any more out of the tyres in the final two sectors and in the end it was his Medium tyre time that carried him to P2 a little over 1500ths of a second ahead of McLaren’s Lando Norris.

Yuki dropped out of the session at the end of Q2© Getty Images

Yuki also prospered on the Mediums in first half of the session but after rising as high as P2 the Japanese driver slid back. Though he did find an improvement on the Soft tyres, his best lap of 1:11.952 left him in ninth place, +0.7s to Max. The session was brought to a premature end, however, when with just a minute left on the clock Ferrari’s Lewis Hamilton went into the barriers at the exit of Massenet.

Q1

Despite being one of the last on track at the start of qualifying, it was Max who led the way in the opening exchanges of Q1, with the champion’s opening flyer of 1:11.920, set on Soft tyres, taking him to P1, almost two tenths ahead of Charles. Max’s opener was beaten by Lando, whose second flyer was four tenths quicker than the Red Bull driver and then by Oscar Piastri who stopped the clock at 1:11.385.

Max managed to shave a tenth off his opener on his second flyer and as he headed back to the pit lane to complete his first run, the champion sat in fifth place, separated from the McLarens by Mercedes’ George Russell and third-placed Charles in the Ferrari.

Yuki, meanwhile, was not fairing as well and his best opening run time of 1:12.397 left him in 17th place. The Japanese driver’s next flyer was better, however, and an improved time of 1:11.930 took him to 10th place with just under two minutes remaining of the session. There was more pressure in the final run as he slid down to 13th, but a good final flyer took Yuki back up to 10th and into Q2.

Max fell back to seventh in the closing moments, but a good final lap of 1:11.431, pushed him back up to P4 at the end of the session, two tenths off pacesetter Charles and behind Lando and Oscar. There was a brief halt at the end of the session when Mercedes’ Kimi Antonelli clipped the barrier on the entry to the Nouvelle Chicane and he went into the barriers at the exit.

Q2

Norris led the way in the first runs of Q2, with the McLaren driver taking P1 on 1:10.959. Max slotted into second place with 0.065s behind, while Charles, with Medium tyres on board took third place two tenths further back.

However, moments later the red flags were thrown once more. George Russell slowed through the hairpin and Portier before grinding to a halt in the tunnel with power unit issues. The stoppage meant Yuki was denied a clean lap and he was left in P12, behind the Haas’ of Esteban Ocon and ahead of Oscar.

The Japanese driver’s next lap of 1:11.415 was solid but only good enough to push him up to P10 and when Racing Bulls driver Isack Hadjar vaulted to P7 and Ocon improved to 10th, Yuki dropped out of the session in P12, behind Sauber’s Nico Hülkenberg and ahead of the sidelined Mercedes cars.

Further up the order, Max also slipped back at the start of the final runs, but a good final lap of 1:10.875 took him up to fifth place and into Q3. Lando topped the session with a lap of 1:10.570 ahead of Charles, Williams’ Alex Albon and Oscar in the other McLaren.

Q3

In the opening runs of Q3, it was Lando who set the pace with a lap of 1:10.464, just under seven hundredths of a second ahead of Oscar. Max’s opener of 1:10.669 put him fourth, 0.016s behind Charles and two tenths off the top spot.

But unfortunately for Max there was no matching the pace of the McLarens in the final two flyers. Lando first dropped the provisional pole time to 1:10.125 and though Charles briefly moved ahead with a 1:10.063, Lando found more time to take pole with a lap of 1:09.954, a new track record. Charles finished P2 and behind the local hero, Oscar finished third ahead of Lewis.

The Dutchman took fifth place at the end of the session© Getty Images

Max couldn’t improve on his opening lap and at the end of the session the Dutchman took fifth place at the end of the session ahead of Isack Hadjar, Aston Martin’s Fernando Alonso, Esteban Ocon, the other VCARB car of Liam Lawson and Alex Albon rounding out the top 10.

A post-session investigation from the stewards had deemed that Lewis impeded Max during Q1, and as a result dropped Lewis by 3 places, promoting Max to P4 for the starting grid on Sunday.