Formula 1

Kimi Raikkonen takes pole for the Monaco GP

Published May. 28, 2017 7:05 a.m. ET

Samuel Reiman

Kimi Raikkonen will start on pole position for Sunday's Monaco GP. This is the Finn's first pole position since the 2008 French GP.

Raikkonen will start alongside his Ferrari teammate Sebastian Vettel, who qualified just 0.043 seconds behind him in second. The Mercedes of Valtteri Bottas will line up in third ahead of the Red Bull teammates. Carlos Sainz, Sergio Perez, Romain Grosjean, Jenson Button and Stoffel Vandoorne rounded out the top 10, although it's not all good news for the two McLaren teammates.

In Q2, the story of the session was the elimination of Lewis Hamilton after various issues stopped him from setting a competitive time. Hamilton set the 14th fastest time but will start 13th due to a penalty for Jenson Button. Hamilton was caught out at the end of the session when Stoffel Vandoorne crashed in Turn 16 which stopped the cars on track from setting a faster time. Another driver caught out was Daniil Kvyat, who was eliminated in Q2 despite the fact that Toro Rosso have had a fast car this weekend.

In Q1, Esteban Ocon just missed the cut-off in 16th, but his Force India team had done well just to get him out on track following a crash at the end of FP3. Jolyon Palmer was also eliminated as was the Williams of Lance Stroll. The two Sauber teammates were the slowest in qualifying, with Marcus Ericsson sustaining a puncture when he clipped the barrier in the closing moments of the session.

However, it will be McLaren’s Jenson Button starting from the rear of the field. He made it into Q3 but had a 15-place penalty for an engine change.

Button's penalty moved Vandoorne up to ninth, but he drops back three spots for causing a collision in Spain and so will start 12th.

Starting grid:

1. Kimi Raikkonen - Ferrari
2. Sebastian Vettel - Ferrari
3. Valtteri Bottas - Mercedes
4. Max Verstappen - Red Bull
5. Daniel Ricciardo - Red Bull
6. Carlos Sainz - Toro Rosso
7. Sergio Perez - Force India
8. Romain Grosjean - Haas
9. Daniil Kvyat - Toro Rosso
10. Nico Hulkenberg - Renault
11. Kevin Magnussen - Haas
12. Stoffel Vandoorne - McLaren (after 3-place penalty)
13. Lewis Hamilton - Mercedes
14. Felipe Massa - Williams
15. Esteban Ocon - Force India
16. Jolyon Palmer - Renault
17. Lance Stroll - Williams
18. Pascal Wehrlein - Sauber
19. Marcus Ericsson - Sauber
20. Jenson Button - McLaren (after 15-place penalty)

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