Ferrari's Leclerc on pole at Monaco GP, Piastri second, Sainz third

MONACO -- Charles Leclerc will start the Monaco Grand Prix from pole position after beating McLaren's Oscar Piastri to the fastest time in qualifying by 0.154 seconds.

Championship leader Max Verstappen will start sixth after a huge slide in the first corner on his final run saw his Red Bull just miss the wall on the exit and forced him to abort his lap.

The result means Verstappen's run of eight pole positions has come to an end, leaving him one short of taking the outright record for consecutive poles from Ayrton Senna.

Saturday's result was Leclerc's third pole position at his home race, but he has yet to finish on the podium at Monaco after suffering notoriously bad luck around the street circuit.

In 2021 he suffered a driveshaft failure on the way to the grid, and in 2022 Ferrari bungled his strategy, leaving him fourth at the finish.

Leclerc said after the session: "The feeling after a qualifying lap is always very special here so I'm really happy about the lap. ... However, I know from the past that qualifying is not everything. As much as it helps for Sunday's race, we need to put everything together.

"In the past years we haven't managed to do so. We are a stronger team, we are in a stronger position, and I'm sure we can achieve great things tomorrow, and the win is a target."

When asked what he needs to do to win on Sunday, he said: "I need a good launch off the grid and hopefully if we do that Carlos can have a great start and follow me into Turn 1 and be one-two, and if it's a one-two we can manage the lap as a team -- that would be the perfect scenario, but whatever happens we just need to bring that victory home."

Leclerc's Ferrari teammate Carlos Sainz will start third on Sunday's grid ahead of the second McLaren of Lando Norris, who left his run right until the last minute but failed to improve.

After qualifying, Sainz said: "I think overall it was an improvement for me -- I've been struggling all weekend with confidence and feeling with the car. So to step it up and be P3 was a step forward. [Although I'm] not entirely happy because I wish I could have been fighting for pole position.

"Charles has been doing an outstanding job and the car has been amazing all this weekend and he managed to extract the most of it, so I'm happy for him."

Sainz will be investigated after the session for allegedly impeding Alex Albon's Williams in Q1.

George Russell secured fifth on the grid ahead of Verstappen, with the second Mercedes of Lewis Hamilton taking seventh.

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RB's Yuki Tsunoda will start eighth on the grid ahead of Albon and Alpine driver Pierre Gasly in tenth.

Esteban Ocon missed out on a place in Q3 by 0.069s and will line up 11th for Alpine ahead of Haas driver Nico Hulkenberg.

Daniel Ricciardo will start 13th for RB ahead of Aston Martin's Lance Stroll and the second Haas of Kevin Magnussen.

Fernando Alonso was knocked out in the opening session of qualifying after missing the cut for Q2 by 0.142s.

He will start 16th on the grid ahead of Williams driver Logan Sargeant, who outqualified the Red Bull of Sergio Perez. Perez was over 0.5s off the fastest time in Q1 and struggled for pace throughout the lap after clipping the wall at the exit of Turn 1 on his fast lap.

The two Saubers will fill the back row of the grid with Valtteri Bottas in 19th and Zhou Guanyu over a second off a place in Q1 in last overall.