Max Verstappen expressed his satisfaction after beating Fernando Alonso and Charles Leclerc to pole position at the Monaco Grand Prix during a hotly contested qualifying session in the Principality.
In the deciding hour of the grid on Saturday, the trio of Red Bull, Aston Martin and Ferrari battled it out for P1, with the reigning two-time world champion eventually coming out on top to take his maiden pole position in Monte Carlo.
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Speaking after the session, Verstappen admitted that his final lap of 1m 11.365s was difficult to achieve, but nonetheless gave him less than a tenth of a second over his closest rival, Alonso.
“Yes, I am very happy,” he said. “We knew this was going to be a bit difficult for us this weekend, to put it all together. Yesterday was not the best startbut I think we keep getting better and we keep getting better.
“In qualifying, you have to give everything and risk everything. My first sector wasn’t ideal on my last lap, I think Turn 1 was a bit cautious but then I knew I was behind, so in the last sector I gave everything I had and cut some barriers… But of course, very happy to be on pole here for the first time.”
While he has the most important track position for race day, Verstappen is wary of the various dramas that can occur on Monaco’s narrow, winding streets, asking Red Bull to “keep things clean and calm.” “.
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“We need a clean start,” he commented. “It’s a short race to Turn 1. I mean, in Monaco, a lot can happen: Safety Car, rain, whatever, there’s always a bit of chaos involved. I think race pace-wise the car is fast, so that’s not the problem.”
Verstappen was the only Red Bull in action in the pole shootout after his teammate Sergio Pérez crashed dramatically at Sainte Devote during Q1leaving the Mexican regretful of what could have been.
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“It was going well, I was happy with the balance,” Pérez explained. “But going into the corner, I lost the rear quite late into the corner, and then I became a passenger.
“It was so late that I had nowhere to go, I couldn’t cut the corner or get out of the corner and I ended up hitting the wall, which is a huge mistake on my part, and I’m so sorry to my team. .”
He added: “This mistake is very hard to swallow. I don’t know what to say, I’m just sorry for my team, they don’t deserve this… I’m really disappointed in myself and tomorrow will be a very difficult day to do anything.”
Red Bull will enter Sunday’s Grand Prix with a 122-point lead over Aston Martin in the builders classificationwhile Verstappen leads his teammate Perez by 14 points in the race for drivers title.