2026 Monaco GP Qualifying Review
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What makes Monaco qualifying so special and why does it excite the hosts?
Thank you for listening to the Late Breaking F1 podcast. Make sure to check out new episodes every Wednesday and every Sunday.
Hello and a very warm welcome to the Late Breaking F1 podcast presented by Sam Sage and me, Ben Hocking. Monaco qualifying. Normally, Sam, I like to think I can kick off some of these episodes, at least with a bit of eloquence. I just don't have any words for this one, though. It's Monaco qualifying. It was great.
It's a belter. When a Formula One session gets me stood up in the lounge while I'm watching the telly and I'm saying to everyone else, shush please please be quiet please stop talking I need to watch this I need to know what's going on that's when Formula 1's got you that's when it's good and it is good to be back doing qualifying at Monaco
Absolutely. I've got plenty to get into today, of course, all the way from Q1 down to that incredibly thrilling Q3 that saw Antonelli get yet another pole position ahead of Max Verstappen's Red Bull, both Ferraris on the second row, Hamilton ahead of Leclerc. Just those standings, though, don't really tell the whole story. Let's get into how Antonelli was able to get pole position. It looked like, Sam, yesterday in sort of first and second practice, Mercedes weren't a million miles off the pace, but equally not what we've seen from them so far this year. We get to FP3 this morning, Antonelli leads the way, and suddenly it looks like Mercedes are back. Then we get throughout the first couple of parts of qualifying.
And again, looks like they're in the mix, but it is a mix. It's not going to be a dominant pole. And then right at the end of Q3, Antonelli pulls out the bag at 1 minute 12, just ahead of Max Verstappen. Brilliant stuff.
Thrilling. Absolutely captivating. An incredible performance from him. It's amazing to see that he's able to rock up and do it again at another venue. A venue where last year he was, I'm going to say it, woeful. He was really poor last time out. Crashed in qualifying, nowhere near the points, well off the pace of his teammate and all the other rivals. He's rocked up here at his second time of asking, and he's not just beating his teammate, who, let's face it, he has obliterated today. He's beating four-time world champion Max Verstappen. He's beating seven-time world champion Lewis Hamilton. He's beating regular pole sitter and home favourite Charles Leclerc. It is a sensational turnout for the books, and it was a thrilling session.
He does it all without a single fastest sector throughout his final lap as well, green across the board. which shows you that he must be at 99% for every single one of those sectors. And the consistency from him, when only he's at his second appearance at Monaco, is phenomenal. Just groundbreaking stuff. Great to see him take the fight to the big guns of Monaco, the guys that have done it before. It's really good to see him rock up and steal the show a little bit.
It was the consistency for me throughout today that has really shown the development of Antonelli because I was having a look through best sector times from third practice just to see going into qualifying who might be in the conversation for pole. Antonelli was an obvious one based on him being fastest in FP3. But I was just looking at like, who had the fastest sector one time? It was Antonelli. But it wasn't just that. He had like the four best times. And then you look at sector three and it's basically the same thing. He was just able to very consistently without... ever really getting too close to the walls, that there were larrier drivers out there, I think, than Antonelli today. And that really impressed me.
Antonelli seems to be right now on this, I'm going to call it a box-ticking exercise in terms of what he needs to prove in the sport. Going into this year, it's like, can he win a Grand Prix? China wins. Can he win consistently? Well, he's on this incredible run right now. And then Monaco, such a unique challenge. We've seen plenty of drivers succeed elsewhere in the sport and then get to Monaco and not be able to bring it.
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Chapters
7 chapters
1
What makes Monaco qualifying so special and why does it excite the hosts?
0:00–4:17
2
How did Kimi Antonelli secure pole position and what did the hosts think of his performance?
4:17–12:05
3
Why did Ferrari struggle in Q3 despite strong practice runs?
12:05–17:20
4
How did McLaren’s pace evolve through Q2 and Q3 and why did they miss the podium?
17:20–25:35
5
What went wrong for Audi in Monaco and how did their practice speed disappear in qualifying?
25:35–31:43
6
Why did Mercedes and Nico Hülkenberg under‑perform and what could explain their lack of progress?
31:43–38:21
7
Which midfield drivers showed surprise form and how might strategy affect their final race positions?
38:21–40:56