Max Verstappen took pole position for the Monaco Grand Prix, thanks to an extraordinary lap at the end of Q3, achieved by touching the crash barriers twice.

The Red Bull driver set pole with a time of 1m11.365s on a fresh set of P Zero Red softs. On the Principality's street circuit, Fernando Alonso shone with a time of 1m11.449s, which will allow him to start from second on the grid tomorrow. Third fastest was local hero Charles Leclerc (Ferrari) in 1m11.471s. Sergio Perez (Red Bull), will instead start from the back of the grid: a trip into the barriers at the first corner put him out of action in Q1.

FP3 was marked by a Virtual Safety Car caused by Lewis Hamilton heading into the barriers at Mirabeau, which caused the session to end early. The two Red Bulls dominated: Max Verstappen stopped the clock with a 1m12.776s while Sergio Perez set a time of 1m12.849s. Lance Stroll (Aston Martin) set his fastest lap in 1m12.942s. All three used a fresh set of softs.

Temperatures reached almost 29 degrees today during the final free practice session. The sensors on the asphalt during qualifying instead detected temperatures between 41 and 47 degrees C. Temperatures in qualifying, which took place at 4pm, were essentially stable. Good weather is expected all day tomorrow, with partially cloudy skies during the race. The chances of rain are now reduced to 20%.

The Pirelli Pole Position Award was presented to Max Verstappen by Maria Sharapova. The former tennis player, now an entrepreneur, has won five Grand Slam tournaments and was for 21 weeks in the first position of the world singles ranking. Maria is one of the few players in tennis history to have completed the Career Grand Slam, i.e. having won all four Grand Slam tournaments (Melbourne, Paris, Wimbledon, and Flushing Meadows).

On a track where overtaking is almost impossible, the fastest strategy for the Grand Prix involves a single stop, as soon as possible throughout the 78 scheduled laps. On paper, the drivers should fit the P Zero Yellow medium on the grid and change them between the twentieth and twenty-fifth laps for the hard P Zero Whites to be the fastest. Another possibility is given by the start on the Soft and then change for hard tyres between laps 15 and 20, with the possibility of doing the reverse too.

Mario Isola: "We witnessed one of the most spectacular and unpredictable qualifying sessions in the recent history of Formula 1 today in Monte-Carlo, which was closely fought from the first to the last minute. We already saw yesterday that the gaps on this track would be very small, and this was confirmed again this afternoon. In Q1, the top 15 riders were within 0.652s, while in Q2 there was a 0.469s gap between first and 10th. In Q3, we had the top four drivers, with four different teams, separated by 0.188s. Congratulations to all the drivers on track today, who put on a great show at the absolute limit.

"From a technical point of view, we confirmed the versatility of the soft compound, which made it possible to do several flying laps with cool-down laps in between. The track evolved significantly throughout the day and during each session, which added even more uncertainty. Usually one of the highlights of the Monaco Grand Prix is Saturday but after today we can't wait to find out what comes next.

"We don't expect many strategic surprises: a single stop is the way to go, with the hard tyre as the main choice. However, which tyre to start the race on is more uncertain: the soft tyre certainly offers more grip at the start, but the medium has a wider window of use, with a better chance to make the most of any safety cars."

Check out our Saturday gallery from Monaco here.