Antonelli's 'magic lap' pips Verstappen to Monaco pole

Mercedes' Kimi Antonelli pipped Red Bull's Max Verstappen to pole position in a gripping qualifying session at the Monaco Grand Prix.

The top spot changed hands three times in the final seconds of qualifying as Antonelli became last man standing, edging Verstappen by just 0.043 seconds to take his fourth pole of the year.

Lewis Hamilton was third as the fastest Ferrari, a place ahead of team-mate Charles Leclerc, who had been briefly top with two minutes to go but crashed on his final lap.

And Antonelli's title rival George Russell in the second Mercedes was only sixth, behind Red Bull's Isack Hadjar.

McLaren's Oscar Piastri and Lando Norris could manage only seventh and eighth places.

Antonelli keeps raising the bar in the second season of his career and this was as impressive as it has got so far.

A Monaco pole is a statement performance for any driver and one of the biggest prizes in Formula 1. To deliver in this fashion, at the age of 19, underlined his potential as the most likely world champion this year at this early stage.

He and Verstappen were separated by just 0.001secs after their first runs in the final session and Antonelli said he had produced a "magic lap" to beat the Dutchman.

Leclerc went out early for the final runs after missing his first lap with a lock-up at Mirabeau, and he put himself at the top with his first effort.

Verstappen then beat that mark by 0.257secs to take top spot, only for Antonelli to displace him.

Leclerc was not finished - he had given himself time to have one final lap as the last driver on track. But he went over the limit and slid wide on the entry to Tabac, crunching his right rear wheel against the wall and breaking his rear suspension.

Antonelli said: "I was able to put everything together. It was such a close qualifying session. The last lap was good."

Verstappen said he was surprised to be able to compete for pole position.

"If you would have told me yesterday I would be on the front row, I would have taken it," he said. "So heading into qualifying and being up there was extremely positive. Very happy with how qualifying went."

Ferrari had been quickest on Friday, first and second in both sessions, but Hamilton said the car felt different as soon as qualifying started.

"We were looking so good in practice and then the car was drastically different in qualifying," Hamilton said, "so we have to take a look at that. But I was giving it everything. What a privilege it is to be one of the 22 drivers who gets to do this. I loved every second of it."

Russell struggled for grip throughout the session and never looked likely to get into the fight for pole, and he ended up 0.394secs behind his team-mate.

He admitted to being baffled as to why he had lost performance in recent races.

"Start of the year it was just easier," Russell said. "Every lap I did in practice, qualifying, it was P1 or worse case P2 - every single session, Q1, Q2, Q3.

"The last three races, it has just been nowhere and even Canada, it was a real fight to get a decent lap and then I just nailed it at the end of both of those sessions.

"That was pulling something special out of the hat and a bit of luck to do it at the right time, but that is just where I am at the moment."

Norris had been fourth quickest on the first runs in the final session, but a mistake into the chicane on the harbour on his final run dropped him down.

The world champion said: "I just had a lock-up into 10. I don't know why. When I looked at the data, I had fractionally more brake pressure but the line and bump were the same.

"I was at 99.9% and it's hard to know that sometimes and I went to 100% and paid the price.

"But we just didn't have the car all weekend, we have been struggling, that's very clear.

"Difficult weekend. I tried to go for a better lap and was 0.2secs up almost so there was more potential in it but even if I had been 0.2secs up, I would only have been ahead of Oscar. So the gap to the others was too significant."

1. Kimi Antonelli (Mercedes)

2. Max Verstappen (Red Bull)

3. Lewis Hamilton (Ferrari)

4. Charles Leclerc (Ferrari)

5. Isack Hadjar (Red Bull)

6. George Russell (Mercedes)

7. Oscar Piastri (McLaren)

8. Lando Norris (McLaren)

9. Pierre Gasly (Alpine)

10. Liam Lawson (Racing Bulls)