Formula One is celebrating the 70th running of the Grand Prix of Monaco this weekend as the cars took to the track on Saturday for the all important Qualifying Session. Starting position is critical at Monaco where overtaking is difficult and rare on the narrow street circuit.

To the delight of his hometown crowd, Ferrari driver, Charles Leclerc, took the pole position after dominating all three Free Practice sessions. The pole position is the Monegasque driver's first of the season.

"I'm very happy. We were fast right from the beginning of the weekend and I really think the whole team deserves this pole position," said Leclerc. "We know how important is track position here and having the possibility to start in front of everyone gives us the best chances."

Leclerc's teammate, Carlos Sainz, will start third in an excellent weekend thus far for Scuderia Ferarri.

"Charles has done an amazing job from the beginning of the weekend supported by the whole team and was able to progress steadily as the track was evolving," said Fred Vasseur, Scuderia Ferrari Team Principal. "Carlos was also able to constantly improve getting more and more confidence with the car and the track and at the end was fighting for a place on the front row."

Starting outside the pole will be McLaren's second year driver, Oscar Piastri, who is having an outstanding start to the 2024 season. The front row position is the second in the career of the young Australian native.

"It's great to be starting on the front row, and next to Leclerc, who has been incredibly quick all weekend," said Piastri. "Our aim for tomorrow is to get a good start, and take the opportunities that will come to us. While overtaking will be tricky, we'll give it everything. We've got a good starting spot, so let's see what we can do."

Piastri's McLaren teammate, Lando Norris, will start outside the second row.

Mercedes driver, George Russell, rounded out the top five in qualifying. Russell's teammate, Lewis Hamilton, qualified seventh.

"When you look the final positions on the time sheets, P5 and P7 probably looks like a bit more of the same, but in fact the pace was good, and we were just a few milliseconds away from P2 or P3 with George." said Toto Wolff, Mercedes Team Principal & CEO. "Lewis has put together a very strong weekend, but it wasn't to be on that final run.

Red Bull's Max Verstappen hit the wall and had to back off of his final qualifying lap, settling for P6. Verstappen struggled on Friday but was second quickest in Saturday's Free Practice session earlier in the day.

"It has not been a good weekend for the Team in general. We have tried a lot of changes over the past few days and nothing has helped optimise the performance of the car," said the three time World Champion. "In general, it drives well on the straight but has been very difficult over the curves and bumps so has not been good to drive on this kind of track."

"The ride of the car is not good and it has been bouncing around a lot, which makes it really tricky," added Verstappen.

Similar to the 2023 Grand Prix, Verstappen's teammate, Sergio Perez, did not make it out of Q1.

Yuki Tsunoda continues to impress in qualifying, grabbing P8, his sixth trip into Q3 this season.

Williams driver Alex Albon and Alpine's Pierre Gasly qualified ninth and tenth, respectively. For both drivers, it is the first appearance in Q3 of the 2024 season.

Qualifying Results Summary - Leclerc, Piastri, Sainz, Norris, Russell, Verstappen, Hamilton, Tsunoda, Albon, Gasly, Ocon, Hulkenberg, Ricciardo, Stroll, Magnussen, Alonso, Sargeant, Perez, Bottas, Zhou

FP3 Results Summary - Leclerc, Verstappen, Hamilton, Piastri, Perez, Russell, Sainz, Norris, Tsunoda, Alonso, Gasly, Albon, Hulkenberg, Magnussen, Stroll, Ocon, Sargeant, Ricciardo, Zhou, Bottas

Monaco Full Qualifying Results

Pos	Driver		Team		Time		Gap


1	Leclerc		Ferrari		1:10.270	106.231 mph
2	Piastri		McLaren		1:10.424	0.154
3	Sainz		Ferrari		1:10.518	0.248
4	Norris		McLaren		1:10.542	0.272
5	Russell		Mercedes	1:10.543	0.273
6	Verstappen	Red Bull	1:10.567	0.297
7	Hamilton	Mercedes	1:10.621	0.351
8	Tsunoda		RB		1:10.858	0.588
9	Albon		Williams	1:10.948	0.678
10	Gasly		Alpine		1:11.311	1.041
11	Ocon		Alpine		1:11.285	
12	Hulkenberg	Haas		1:11.440	
13	Ricciardo	RB		1:11.482	
14	Stroll		Aston Martin	1:11.563	
15	Magnussen	Haas		1:11.725	
16	Alonso		Aston Martin	1:12.019	
17	Sargeant	Williams	1:12.020	
18	Perez		Red Bull	1:12.060	
19	Bottas		Stake		1:12.512	
20	Zhou		Stake		1:13.028	

Monaco FP3 Full Results

Pos	Driver		Team		Time		Gap

1	Leclerc		Ferrari		1:11.369	104.595 mph
2	Verstappen	Red Bull	1:11.566	0.197
3	Hamilton	Mercedes	1:11.710	0.341
4	Piastri		McLaren		1:11.901	0.532
5	Perez		Red Bull	1:11.923	0.554
6	Russell		Mercedes	1:11.968	0.599
7	Sainz		Ferrari		1:11.979	0.610
8	Norris		McLaren		1:11.988	0.619
9	Tsunoda		RB		1:11.991	0.622
10	Alonso		Aston Martin	1:12.087	0.718
11	Gasly		Alpine		1:12.144	0.775
12	Albon		Williams	1:12.180	0.811
13	Hulkenberg	Haas		1:12.192	0.823
14	Magnussen	Haas		1:12.216	0.847
15	Stroll		Aston Martin	1:12.331	0.962
16	Ocon		Alpine		1:12.472	1.103
17	Sargeant	Williams	1:12.703	1.334
18	Ricciardo	RB		1:12.829	1.460
19	Zhou		Stake		1:13.830	2.461
20	Bottas		Stake		No Time	

(image provided by Aston Martin F1 Media)