Kimi Raikkonen secured his first pole position for nine years on Saturday when he outpaced his Ferrari teammate Sebastian Vettel in a dramatic qualifying session for Sunday’s Monaco Grand Prix.
The 37-year-old Finn, who had not taken pole position for 128 races stretching back to 2008, dominated the afternoon’s action to clock a fastest lap of one minute and 12.178 seconds.
That left him 0.043 seconds ahead of the world championship leader and three-time champion Vettel who in turn was just two-thousandths of a second faster than third-placed Valtteri Bottas of Mercedes-GP.
The Finn’s Mercedes teammate, Briton Lewis Hamilton, failed to make progress from Q2 and missed the cut for the top-10 shoot-out. He qualified 14th after a miserable afternoon.
Dutch teenager Max Verstappen took fourth place ahead of his Red Bull Racing teammate, Australian Daniel Ricciardo, Spaniard Carlos Sainz of Toro Rosso, Mexican Sergio Perez of Force India and Frenhcman Romain Grosjean of Haas.
Briton Jenson Button, back from retirement to replace two-time champion Spaniard Fernando Alonso, who is racing in the Indianapolis 500, was ninth for McLaren ahead of his teammate Stoffel Vandoorne.
However, Button has a 15-place grid penalty for engine replacements and that is expected to lift Hamilton up to 13th.
MONACO GRAND PRIX QUALIFYING RESULTS
1. Kimi Raikkonen (Finland) Ferrari 1:12.178
2. Sebastian Vettel (Germany) Ferrari 1:12.221
3. Valtteri Bottas (Finland) Mercedes-GP 1:12.223
4. Max Verstappen (Netherlands) Red Bull Racing 1:12.496
5. Daniel Ricciardo (Australia) Red Bull Racing 1:12.998
6. Carlos Sainz Jr (Spain) Toro Rosso 1:13.162
7. Sergio Perez (Mexico) Force India 1:13.329
8. Romain Grosjean (France) Haas 1:13.349
9. Jenson Button (Britain) McLaren 1:13.613
10. Stoffel Vandoorne (Belgium) McLaren
--------------------
11. Daniil Kvyat (Russia) Toro Rosso 1:13.516
12. Nico Huelkenberg (Germany) Renault 1:13.628
13. Kevin Magnussen (Denmark) Haas 1:13.959
14. Lewis Hamilton (Britain) Mercedes-GP 1:14.106
15. Felipe Massa (Brazil) Williams 1:20.529
--------------------
16. Esteban Ocon (France) Force India 1:14.101
17. Jolyon Palmer (Britain) Renault 1:14.696
18. Lance Stroll (Canada) Williams 1:14.893
19. Pascal Wehrlein (Germany) Sauber 1:15.159
20. Marcus Ericsson (Sweden) Sauber 1:15.276
* Agence France-Presse
Follow us on Twitter @NatSportUAE
Like us on Facebook at facebook.com/TheNationalSport
