Bethonie WaringMitch Evans takes pole position ahead of Pascal Wehrlein after a dominant qualifying performance.
The Jaguar driver was the only man to set a time sub-1m30s around the streets of Monaco. His fastest time came in the final head to head of the session, when he managed a 1m29.839s lap. The time was 0.257s quicker than Wehrlein’s time.
Evans topped the second qualifying group, ahead of Nyck de Vries, Andre Lotterer and Robin Frijns. Frijns had set the pace after the first laps, but a mistake on his second run meant he wasn’t able to improve. As others improved on their second flying laps, he slipped down the order, but managed to stay within the top four to go through to the head to head duels.
In the first qualifying group, Stoffel Vandoorne went quickest, less than a tenth of a second quicker than Wehrlein. Vergne had been the one to go quickest after the first laps but, like Frijns, made a mistake on his second flying lap. A lock-up at turn one put him on the back foot, but he managed to go third quickest ahead of Lucas Di Grassi.
Evans went head to head with Di Grassi in the duels. He set the fastest time of anyone in the quarter-finals with a 1m30.053 putting him into the semis against Vergne. The Jaguar driver again lowered his fastest time of the session, managing a 1m30.001s lap to go just 0.117s quicker than Vergne.
Meanwhile, Wehrlein had gone head to head with team-mate Lotterer in the quarter-finals. Despite a small tap of the wall at Sainte Devote, Wehrlein emerged on top. He then faced Vandoorne in the semi-finals, where he beat the Mercedes driver by almost two-tenths of a second.
Evans’ victory in the finals makes him the fifth different pole sitter of the season.
Behind him and Wehrlein, Vergne will start third ahead of Vandoorne and di Grassi. Lotterer, Frijns and de Vries make up the remainder of the top eight.
Oliver Rowland was the quickest of the drivers not to make it into the duels. He finished fifth quickest in the second qualifying group, missing out by just 0.092s and lines up ninth on the grid.
Sam Bird was fifth quickest in the first qualifying group and would have lined up 10th on the grid, but a penalty drops him back to 13th. Antonio Felix Da Costa completes the top 10 ahead of Maximilian Guenther and Oliver Askew, who had a whole powertrain change completed after the second practice session.
