Nothing if not spectacular, qualifying for the Monaco Grand Prix is the session of the weekend that surely stirs the heart the most. On the narrow, twisting streets of Monte Carlo against the backdrop of the lowering cliffs of the principality and framed against the looming walls of the circuit, the sudden-death drama, the tense, gripping draw of the single lap challenge is surely nowhere writ more large. On Saturday Monaco delivered on all the promise with a truly stunning denouement.
It was Max Verstappen who took pole for Red Bull but only with the most magnificent final sector of his final lap to pip Fernando Alonso’s Aston Martin into second. In so doing he had threaded the needle in Monaco with an elegant but daredevil commitment that was at times almost heart-stopping. Nor was it predictable. In those final moments of Q3 as the clock ticked down and the leading protagonists set about their final hot laps as the circuit reached its quickest, it prompted almost a Mexican wave of celebrations in the pit lane.
