Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc took pole position for the Monaco Grand Prix from McLaren’s Oscar Piastri.

Leclerc, the form driver all weekend and looking at one with the circuit in his Ferrari, beat the Australian by 0.154 seconds.

World champion Max Verstappen, struggling all weekend in his Red Bull, could manage only sixth place after hitting the wall at the first corner on his final lap.

Ferrari’s Carlos Sainz was third, ahead of McLaren’s Lando Norris and Mercedes George Russell, whose team-mate Lewis Hamilton was seventh.

The scale of Leclerc’s achievement was apparent from the lap times – his margin over Piastri was bigger than the gap separating the McLaren driver from Verstappen in sixth.

Both Piastri and Sainz paid tribute to the level of Leclerc’s performance through the weekend, saying they recognised going into qualifying that he would be difficult to beat. Sainz said: “Charles has been amazing all weekend.”

It was Leclerc’s third pole in the last four races in Monaco, but despite the importance of starting at the front on a track where overtaking is the most difficult on the calendar, he and Ferrari have not managed to convert the previous two.

Leclerc said: “It was nice. The feeling after a qualifying lap is always very special here. Really, really happy about the lap, the excitement is so high but it feels really good.

“But now I know more often than not in there past qualifying is not everything, as much as it counts, we need to put everything together coming the Sunday, and in the past years we did not manage to do it, but we are a stronger team now and I am sure we can achieve the target.”