{"id":625155,"date":"2026-06-07T00:02:20","date_gmt":"2026-06-07T00:02:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/625155\/"},"modified":"2026-06-07T00:02:20","modified_gmt":"2026-06-07T00:02:20","slug":"how-antonellis-magic-lap-stole-pole-from-verstappen-in-monaco","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/625155\/","title":{"rendered":"How Antonelli’s “magic lap” stole pole from Verstappen in Monaco"},"content":{"rendered":"

Recently Max\u00a0Verstappen<\/a> might have been openly questioning his motivation to continue with a type of Formula 1 car he hates, but he brought his A-game to Monaco, peaking at precisely the right moment to deliver a pole-worthy lap.\u00a0Until championship leader Kimi Antonelli<\/a> snatched it away by the wafer-thin margin of 0.048s.<\/p>\n

The gap had been 0.942s just a few hours earlier, in FP3, but Red Bull performed one of those magic tricks and found a sweeter spot ahead of qualifying, making the RB21 less unsympathetic over bumps than before.<\/p>\n

\u201cQuite a bit,\u201d was Verstappen\u2019s response when asked if the car\u2019s pace took him by surprise.\u00a0\u201cAfter this morning\u2026 We were like nine tenths off. I was confident that we would make some improvements heading into qualifying, but not to fight for pole, honestly.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen I jumped into the car, I was like, \u2018OK, let\u2019s try and recover a bit. Maybe top five, that\u2019s the target.\u2019 But I\u2019d say from quite early on in qualifying, the car felt a bit better.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe still have our little problems and especially in the middle sector, that\u2019s where we lose the most, where you have a few kerbs that you have to take and there are a few bumps in the track. It\u2019s just a little bit more complicated at the moment for our car.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut I still think that overall, we had a very good qualifying. We were up there; we were fighting for pole. So even if you would have told me after yesterday, where we looked quite OK, to be starting on the front row, I would have immediately taken it. For us it\u2019s been a very good turnaround. Yesterday I was quite happy. This morning, really not happy, and now I\u2019m fairly happy again.\u201d<\/p>\n

That assessment of losing the most in the middle sector does stand up to analysis, though it was actually the exit from the final corner where\u00a0Antonelli turned around what would have been a P2 lap for him \u2013 in a sector where Verstappen was, overall, faster.<\/p>\n

Little wonder\u00a0Antonelli\u2019s race engineer, Peter Bonnington, told Sky TV afterwards that, \u201cI didn’t think it was on. Just looking at the time delta, I thought, ‘It’s going to be close, but it’s not going to happen.’\u201d<\/p>\n

Read Also:<\/p>\n

Advantage Max in sector one
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The tale of the tape shows Verstappen (dark blue trace in our graphic) went through the first sector fastest of all, in 18.827s compared with Antonelli\u2019s 18.934s. Just a tenth in it, and that will rankle with Charles Leclerc<\/a>, who was just five hundredths off Antonelli (the \u2018Petronas blue\u2019 trace in our graphic) in this first sector on his final flying lap\u2026 before he smote the barrier at Tabac towards the end of the second sector.<\/p>\n

Max attacked the apex of Ste Devote more aggressively, carrying a little more entry speed than\u00a0Antonelli, and hugging the inside kerb more tightly, giving him a slightly neater angle out of the corner and a fractionally higher speed for the first 10 metres or so up the hill towards Massenet. That accounts for a tenth or so, though the gap would ebb and flow again as the Merc\u2019s superior grunt told up the hill, where Antonelli was perhaps a fraction ahead.<\/p>\n

But\u00a0Verstappen then carried more speed into Casino Square, where the track plunges downwards after the sharp right-hander. He took a tighter line through Massenet, then opened the steering to drive straight to the apex of Turn 4 where he speared the apex more precisely, leaving conspicuously less margin for error.<\/p>\n

It was super-tight with the barrier at the exit but Max had faith in the RB21\u2019s front end to commit to this blind-entry corner early. That gave him a couple of car lengths over the\u00a0Mercedes<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Antonelli claws it back in second sector
\n \"\" <\/p>\n

A tighter line through the hairpin enabled Antonelli to snaffle a few thousandths back in the early phases of sector two. But, again, the grunt of the Mercedes helped shave more time off Verstappen\u2019s margin once they had reached Portier and accelerated through the tunnel.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s at the chicane where the balance shifted. There, the Red Bull was visibly discombobulated over the bumps on the initial entry after the downhill braking phase, then again between the first and second\u00a0apices.<\/p>\n

Antonelli had the confidence to lift off a fraction later than Verstappen and carry more speed towards the first apex; both of them were millimetre-precise in almost brushing the front-left wheel against the rounded edge of the Armco barrier here, it\u2019s just that Antonelli was travelling faster.<\/p>\n

Watch qualifying again, see\u00a0Gabriel Bortoleto<\/a> \u2013 no slouch \u2013 get it completely wrong there, and marvel at the symphony of precision demonstrated by the occupants of the front row.<\/p>\n

All weekend,\u00a0Antonelli has been able to hug the inner contour of the chicane\u2019s kerbing, even after riding the taller \u2018sausage\u2019 element at the second apex. Verstappen managed it too, despite the RB21\u2019s bouncier ride, but Antonelli got the better drive out and had a couple of car lengths\u2019 margin on the drive towards Tabac.<\/p>\n

There,\u00a0Antonelli was later off the throttle once more, carrying a fraction more speed. 33.989s versus 34.184s for sector two. Though Hamilton was fastest of all here with a 33.957s \u2013 another thread in Ferrari<\/a>\u2019s tapestry of frustration.<\/p>\n

Sector three: Verstappen strikes back
\n \"\" <\/p>\n

In the final sector Verstappen was faster overall with a 19.083s, but not by enough, and the margin swung right at the end, with Antonelli\u2019s 19.128s fast enough to preserve the margin he had built up in sector two.<\/p>\n

It didn\u2019t look that way at the beginning.\u00a0Antonelli was first into the swimming pool section, but Verstappen carried more speed through the second apex \u2013 around 7km\/h.<\/p>\n

This was enough to erode the Mercedes\u2019 margin as they passed by the pool itself and approach the second right-left flick. By that point they were roughly even but this time it was\u00a0Verstappen who carried more speed through this section which demands mighty precision and self-confidence; time and again this weekend, cars have threatened to swap ends here and Verstappen\u2019s own team-mate ended up nose-first into the exit barrier on Friday.<\/p>\n

On the approach to\u00a0Rascasse they were roughly even once more but Verstappen got off the throttle later through the left-curving approach to the corner itself, a sharp right-hander. That earned him some time \u2013 enough to have the Mercedes pitwall twitching \u2013 but it\u2019s what Antonelli did next which proved decisive.<\/p>\n

Releasing the brake fractionally later and picking up the throttle earlier than\u00a0Verstappen, Antonelli got a better run past the apex of the tighter right-hander and held on to that through Antony Noghes, the final corner, where the Mercedes\u2019 power tilted the balance in his favour on the run to the line by 0.048s.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was one of those laps that we call the magic lap,\u201d said\u00a0Antonelli afterwards.\u00a0\u201cI didn\u2019t know how much I was improving.\u00a0I just saw before the time of the delta and then I saw it on the finish line. I didn\u2019t know the time that Max did when I was doing the lap.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt felt a good lap, it felt like things just came together, but I didn\u2019t know where I was. I just felt especially that sector two felt great, but then of course I got the confirmation on the radio.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s so intense here that what you just think about is trying to drive as fast as you can without obviously doing mistakes, and then you see once you cross the finish line where you end up.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Andrea <\/p>\n

Photo by: Sam Bloxham \/ LAT Images via Getty Images<\/p>\n

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