ART’s Theo Pourchaire goes quickest during qualifying to take pole position for Saturday’s Feature Race at Monaco

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The Frenchman set a 1:20.985 during Group A’s qualifying session meaning the even number drivers will start on the left side of the grid.

Robert Shwartzman was fastest in Group B meaning the Russian qualifies in second ahead of Prema teammate and second fastest driver in Group A, Oscar Piastri.

Dan Ticktum put his car in fourth ahead of Juri Vips in sixth. Campos’ Ralph Boschung put a very competitive lap time in the second half of qualifying which allowed him to finish sixth. Roy Nissany qualified a fantastic seventh ahead of Christian Lundgaard in eighth, Felipe Drugovich in ninth and Guanyu Zhou who rounded out the top 10.

Group A Qualifying

Car number six of Jehan Daruvala led the drivers of Group A out of the pit-lane and onto their sighter laps. Most of the drivers did one or two laps before returning back to the garage and fitting on a new set of tyres ahead of their competitive laps.

Bent Viscaal set the early pace with a 1:26.782 but was de-throned from top spot by Gianluca Petecof. The Brazillian went almost eight-tenths quicker than the Trident which promoted his Campos to P1.

Nissany went almost three seconds faster than the Campos as the Israeli put himself up to first but was almost instantly relegated down to third after Pourchaire and Piastri went quicker.

The UNI-Virtuosi of Drugovich would then move to the top of the timings but not for long as Vips had enough to go a tenth-and-a-half quicker than the Brazillian.

Car number 16 and car number 10 of Nissany and Pourchaire battled for top spot as the DAMS driver set three purple sectors, but the Frenchman didn’t have any of it and went almost half a second faster.

At the death, Pourchaire went quicker with a 1:20.985 putting his car at the top of Group A. Piastri improved to P2 demoting Vips down to P3 after he went fastest with a minute left in the session.

Nissany came fourth with Drugovich, Daruvala, David Beckmann, Viscaal, Lirim Zendeli, Petecof and Jack Aitken the slowest driver in Group A.

Group B Qualifying

Guanyu Zhou was the first driver out of pit-lane as the second group looked to beat the 1:20.985 lap time set by Pourchaire to secure the left-hand side of the grid.

Marino Sato was the first to set a competitive lap with the Trident driver setting a 1:26.618, nearly four seconds faster than second-placed Christian Lundgaard, but Sato was the only person to set a meaningful lap.

Ticktum jumped to the top of the timings with a 1:23.390 but dropped down to sixth as Zhou set two purple sectors to move him up to P1.

The Brit responded once more with a lap three-tenths quicker but was again eclipsed this time by the Prema of Shwartzman.

Ticktum would not be done there as he once more moved up to first, however, Shwartzman found another tenth and topped Group B but was over four-tenths slower than Pourchaire meaning the second group would start on the right side of the grid.

What’s Next

The first Sprint Race is up on Friday morning with the drivers looking to score their first set of points this weekend.

It is reverse grid pole position for Championship leader Guanyu Zhou who finished qualifying in tenth. The Chinese driver will look to head into turn one with the lead, but will face challenges from Felipe Drugovich and Christian Lundgaard who start in P2 and P3.

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