Leclerc started qualifying as heavy favourite for pole position, his Ferrari appearing ideally suited to the unique street-circuit demands of Monte Carlo’s tight and twist public roads throughout practice.
It took him until Q3 to fully unleash his pace. Dancing between the barriers, the Monegasque completed two laps quick enough for pole position, his final time of 1 minute 10.270 seconds putting him 0.154 seconds clear at the head of the field.
“The feeling after a qualifying lap is always very special here,” he said. “I’m really, really happy about the lap. The excitement is so high. It feels really good.”
This is Leclerc’s third pole position in Monte Carlo, but not only has the Monegasque never tasted victory at home, he’s never so much as finished on the podium despite his Monaco prowess.
“I know more often than not in the past qualifying is not everything,” he said. “As much as it helps a lot for Sunday’s race, we need to put everything together.
“In the past years we didn’t manage to do so, but we’re a stronger team, we’re in a stronger position, and I’m sure we can achieve great things tomorrow. The win is the target.”
Piastri qualified second for the second consecutive grand prix, but unlike last weekend in Imola, where he copped a grid penalty for a team error, in Monaco he’s set to start from the front row for the first time in his career.
The Australian thinks more could have been possible with a cleaner lap too.
“If you took the second half of my first lap in Q3 and the first half of the second one, it would’ve been enough,” he said. “Just a couple of mistakes at the end.
“Credit to Charles. He’s been incredibly quick all weekend. At certain points I don’t think anyone thought we were going to get close to him.
“It’s nice to be starting on the front row. I feel like it’s been a good weekend in terms of building momentum.”
Carlos Sainz completed a Ferrari one-three qualifying result, turning around his lack of pace during practice to get to within 0.248s of his pole-getting teammate.
“I think overall it was an improvement for me,” he said. “I’ve been struggling all weekend with confidence and feeling with the car.
“I’m not entirely happy because I wish I could’ve been fighting for pole position, but the truth is Charles has been doing an outstanding job. The car has been amazing all weekend, and he managed to extract the most from it, so I’m happy for him.”
Lando Norris was fourth in the second McLaren only 0.001 seconds ahead of Mercedes’s George Russell.
Verstappen’s eight-race pole streak came to a shuddering halt with sixth on the grid after struggling all weekend to match his Red Bull Racing car to the unique demands of the Monte Carlo streets.
The RB20 is a strong all-rounder that needs to be set up with stiff suspension to work at its best, but it’s perpetuated a trend among the team’s recent cars to underperform at the sport’s extreme outlier circuits, particularly at those with high kerbs and bumpy track surfaces, both of which feature prominently in Monaco.
Though the Dutchman improved on a dire Friday practice showing, he was far from his best in Q3, lapping 0.297s off the pace and aborting his final lap after slapping the barriers at turn 1.
Lewis Hamilton qualified seventh ahead of Yuki Tsunoda and Thai driver Alex Albon, who took Williams to its first top-10 qualifying result of the season.
Pierre Gasly took Alpine to its best qualifying result of the season and will line up 10th.
Alpine’s Esteban Ocon, podium-getter at last year’s Monaco Grand Prix, was knocked out 11th ahead of Haas driver Nico Hülkenberg - who will face a post-session investigation into impeding Ocon early in Q2 - and RB’s Daniel Ricciardo.
Lance Stroll was Aston Martin’s lead qualifier for the fourth time this season and will start 14h ahead of Kevin Magnussen in the second Haas car.
Two-time Monaco winner Fernando Alonso was knocked out a shock 16th, his Aston Martin slipping down the order throughout practice and looking ultimately uncompetitive in the most important qualifying session of the year.
Under-pressure Williams driver Logan Sargeant was only 0.001 seconds slower than the Spaniard in 17th.
Sergio Pérez suffered his first Q1 knockout of the season, the Mexican struggling to settle in a Red Bull Racing car that’s proved difficult to master all weekend in Monte Carlo and falling 0.173 seconds short of following teammate Verstappen into the top 15.
Sauber teammates Valtteri Bottas and Zhou Guanyu were a distant 19th and 20th, qualifying more than half a second off the back of the pack.