Leclerc storms to Monaco pole, Perez-Sainz in last-lap collision

Ferrari's Charles Leclerc stormed to a home Monaco GP pole position after dominating qualifying, which ended in dramatic fashion as Sergio Perez crashed and Carlos Sainz shunted into him on their last laps.

Trying to match Leclerc's superb lap at the start of Q3, Perez slid into the barriers at the Portier right-hander before Sainz, in the other Ferrari, then came round the corner and hit the stricken Red Bull.

The blocked track and red flags sealed Leclerc's pole, although such was the Monegasque's form it's unlikely he would have been beaten anyway.

An untouchable and unflappable Leclerc topped Q1 and Q2, was three-tenths faster than his rivals on the first laps of Q3 and was even improving on his final lap before the bizarre stoppage.

Sainz, despite hitting Perez, is set to join his team-mate on the front row. The Spaniard lamented the late yellow flags when coming round the corner at Portier, where he slammed on the brakes but couldn't avoid the Red Bull.

Perez was still third, with Max Verstappen struggling for pace throughout the all-important qualifying for F1's showpiece race. He will line up fourth ahead of Lando Norris, who impressively beat both Mercedes.

George Russell seemed to extract the maximum of the W13 in sixth, outqualfiying team-mate Lewis Hamilton by two places and a notable 0.4s.

Hamilton finished over a second off pole.

It was a gripping qualifying as drivers pushed the new-for-2022 cars to the limit around the famous Monte Carlo circuit for the first time, with Sebastian Vettel impressing in ninth and Daniel Ricciardo struggling again in 14th for McLaren.

The other major incident in the session came in Q1, as Yuki Tsunoda clipping the barriers led to a possibly hasty red flag from the stewards.