It could easily have been Monte Carlo and bust for Oscar Piastri as he had a career-high number of brushes with the barriers on F1's most famous street circuit before being relieved to finish third in qualifying for the sport's showpiece Monaco Grand Prix.
Instead, while the championship leader diced with danger, it was McLaren teammate Lando Norris who came out top in a thrilling qualifying contest on Saturday, setting a lap record to edge out hometown hero, Ferrari's Charles Leclerc, for pole.
In a terrific final Q3 shootout, Piastri had seconds earlier also broken the record in 1 minute 10.129 seconds, only for Leclerc, who had topped all three practice sessions, to then clock 1:10.063 and Norris a dazzling 1:09.954.
