Disaster for Lewis Hamilton as Kimi Raikkonen beats Sebastian Vettel to Monaco Grand Prix pole
In dramatic qualifying, Hamilton misses the cut for top-10 shoot-out and is left 14th on the grid
Kimi Raikkonen secured his first pole position for nine years on Saturday when he outpaced his Ferrari teammate Sebastian Vettel in a dramatic qualifying session for Sunday’s Monaco Grand Prix.
The 37-year-old Finn, who had not taken pole position for 128 races stretching back to the French Grand Prix of 2008, dominated action to clock a fastest lap of one minute and 12.178 seconds.
That left him 0.043 seconds ahead of the world championship leader and three-time champion Vettel who in turn was just two-thousandths of a second faster than third-placed Valtteri Bottas of Mercedes.
The Finn’s Mercedes teammate Briton Lewis Hamilton failed to make progress from Q2 and missed the cut for the top-10 shoot-out, qualifying 14th after a miserable afternoon.
“Obviously, it’s great,” said a mumbling and softly-spoken Raikkonen afterwards, showing little emotion. “We’ll try to make the best of it tomorrow ... yes, of course it is good, but here it is all about the fine details.”