Alonso wants to overtake Verstappen rap: 'Hopefully he has a worse start'

For a while, Fernando Alonso held pole position, but suddenly there was Max Verstappen with a great last sector. The 41-year-old Spaniard still gets to start from the front row of the grid and hopes to take over the lead from the Red Bull Racing driver immediately at the start.

"Yes, I feel good, obviously a pole position means a lot here in Monaco, but not today, Max was a little bit faster, which is a shame," said Alonso immediately after qualifying in Monaco. Still, satisfaction prevails for the Aston Martin driver as the starting position is good.

Verstappen made up more than two-tenths in the final sector. The AMR23 had been slower there all weekend. "As you said the last sector for us is our weakest point of the circuit. Let’s see tomorrow, what we can do in terms of strategy if there is any weather coming or something, but we will try to win."

Catching up with Verstappen at the start?

The start will be especially important. "It’s short, coming into turn 1, we had a lot of good starts this year, Max has been a bit inconsistent, so I hope it is one of the bad ones tomorrow," Alonso said.