As is often the case, Monaco again delivered a very exciting qualifying.

Come the end of the three closely contested phases, it all came down to a few thousandths of a second. Scuderia Ferrari HP enjoyed its best Saturday of the year so far, with Charles Leclerc on the front row, alongside Lando Norris, with Lewis Hamilton fourth. Unfortunately, Lewis will be starting from seventh place on the grid, having been given a penalty for impeding Max Verstappen in Q1. The Monegasque came close to another home pole and tomorrow's race looks more open than usual, partly because of the one-off rule for this race that all drivers must stop twice to change tyres, combined with the fact that with both SF-25s on the front row, strategy can come into play to put the McLaren duo, starting from pole and third place, under pressure. The race gets underway tomorrow at 15.00 CEST, run over 78 laps, equivalent to 260.286 kilometres.

Both drivers made it through the first part of qualifying comfortably, when the most difficult element to manage was the traffic. In fact it was at this point that Lewis obstructed Verstappen at turn 3, for which he was later penalised. They then started Q2 on Medium tyres, before switching to the Soft for a second timed lap. Charles and Lewis thus got to the decisive phase with different tyre availability. The Monegasque had two sets of new Softs, while Hamilton had just one new set of these, having used two in Q1. Charles started off with a time of 1'10"653, encountering traffic in turns 7 and 8, while Lewis stopped the clocks in 1'10"986. On the second attempt at taking pole, on fresh tyres, Leclerc posted an amazing 1'10"063, which was only just beaten by Lando Norris. Hamilton improved his time by over six tenths to secure fourth place in 1'10"382.

Charles Leclerc: Our expectations for this weekend weren't particularly high, so finishing at the top of the FPs was a positive sign. Unfortunately, this brings some disappointment with it, not having taken pole today.

It should be an interesting race tomorrow. There will be strategic games between the teams with the mandatory two-stop, and it's possible that we will find some cars from further down the grid in the mix, so it should be exciting and I can't wait to race on my home streets again.

Lewis Hamilton: It's been a demanding day, but there are plenty of positives to take. I'm incredibly grateful to the team for getting the car back out after FP3, their effort was outstanding. We got the most out of qualifying today.

Obviously, I'm disappointed with the final starting grid position, as I've been pleased with how the car has felt all weekend and the steps we've made.

The two-stop strategy will definitely add an extra layer of complexity to the race, but that also opens up opportunities. The goal is to keep pushing and fight for a strong result.

Fred Vasseur: For the first time this season, we managed to put everything together in qualifying, and doing so here in Monaco makes it even more rewarding. The team did a very good job today and we were competitive right from Q1. However, there's a bit of frustration, as Charles had been quickest in every session, but he still delivered a strong performance and came very close to pole. Lewis also did a great job of rebuilding his confidence after this morning's crash. But unfortunately he will have to start from seventh. In general, we can say we've made good progress compared to previous Saturdays.

Now we need to focus on the race, where the goal will be to put pressure on McLaren. We'll focus on ourselves and prepare for tomorrow's challenge.

Check out our Saturday gallery from Monaco here.