Qualifying has come to an end this weekend at the 2022 Monaco Grand Prix. Home driver Charles Leclerc has added another pole position to his record after out-qualifying teammate Carlos Sainz, with a time of 1:11.376 and a difference of 0.225 seconds comparing to second place. In third place was Sergio "Checo" Perez, who managed to beat the one-time world champion and his teammate, Max Verstappen, however, the Mexican Red Bull Racing driver and the Spaniard Ferrari driver had quite a bittersweet end of the session, this due to the fact that the Mexican spun at turn 8 of the Monaco Circuit, before entering the tunnel section, hitting the retaining wall with his rear wing. As all the drivers were trying to improve their fastest lap since it was the last attempt that the drivers were going to have to see who was going to take pole position, Carlos Sainz was unable to avoid contact with the Mexican's RB18, also receiving damage. This coupled with another crash but at turn 5 by two-time world champion Fernando Alonso's Alpine, the drivers were unable to complete their last attempt.

One of the drivers who was most affected by these crashes and the red flag at the end of qualifying was Max Verstappen. The Dutch driver failed to complete his final fastest lap, so he had to settle for a bittersweet P4, as we know that the Monaco Circuit is the worst circuit to overtake. These were some of his statements after the session.

“It has been a little tricky for me the whole weekend, and of course in qualifying, Q3 I wanted to go all out. It [the track conditions] was getting a bit better. Also, in the last run, I opted to do a little bit of a different strategy to the cars around me and it was actually quite good, because I was in a good lap until I got into that corner [where Checo and Carlos crashed] and there was a bit of a traffic jam. It’s very unfortunate.”

“I think we could have done better than fourth, not pole position. I think Charles is too strong today but at least, would have been nice to be second. That’s Monaco, you do one lap in Q3 and there is always that risk of a red flag.”

“We were improving, we were trying some things in the car during practice which didn’t really give me a good feeling. I was actually looking a bit better, since I couldn’t switch to new tyres in my first timed lap, second timed lap I did [switch tyres] and it was good, everything was feeling good but of course, I saw the road block in turn 8.”

“It’s Monaco, we just have to deal with it, accept it move from there.”

The Dutch driver will be sharing the second row of the starting grid with his teammate, Sergio Perez, who will try to attack both Ferrari drivers (who lock out the first row of the starting grid, with Leclerc in P1 and Sainz in P2). Rainy weather is expected for Sunday, so anything can happen on the streets of the Principality of Monaco.