Monaco Grand Prix Qualifying: Top three press conference transcript

The Mercedes teenager edged Max Verstappen by just 0.043 seconds in Q3, securing his fourth pole of the season and extending an extraordinary run of form that has seen him become the driver to beat in 2026.

Verstappen came agonisingly close to denying Antonelli and will start alongside him on the front row. The Red Bull driver remained in contention throughout qualifying and extracted everything from his RB22, but ultimately fell just short around the streets of Monte Carlo where margins are measured in thousandths.

Lewis Hamilton completed the top three for Ferrari after the Scuderia's early dominance faded when it mattered most.

Ferrari had topped Friday practice and looked favourites for pole, but Hamilton could not quite match the pace of Antonelli and Verstappen in the final shootout. Nevertheless, third place leaves the seven time world champion firmly in the hunt heading into Sunday's race where track position is critical.

Below is the full transcript from the top three press conference hosted by the FIA today after Monaco Grand Prix Qualifying.

DRIVERS   1 – Kimi ANTONELLI (Mercedes) 2 – Max VERSTAPPEN (Red Bull Racing) 3 – Lewis HAMILTON (Ferrari)   PARC FERMÉ INTERVIEWS (Conducted by Jenson Button)  

Q: Kimi, it was the most important qualifying session of the season, and for someone that’s only in their second year in Formula 1, it must be a pretty special one?

Kimi ANTONELLI: Yeah, I mean, it was one of those laps that we call the magic lap. I was able to put it all together, and it was such a close qualifying with Max. I think in the first run of Q3 there was just one millisecond between us, but I knew the last lap was good, and I was just hoping that it would have been enough. But yeah, it was very close, and I’m very happy with that. Massive thanks to the team because yesterday we struggled a little bit, and today we were able to improve massively.  

Q: Was it one of those special moments, like the late, great Ayrton Senna used to say, the out-of-body experience of qualifying in Monaco? KA: Yeah, I mean, I think this is one of the most intense, if not the most intense qualifying sessions of the year, and it takes a massive effort, also in practices, because you just keep trying to get close to the limit. And when it’s about finding the last two tenths, it’s not easy because the walls start to come closer and it’s not easy to gain the confidence. But I have to be honest, I felt great this morning, and I’m happy that we could finish the job today.   Q: Do you think your age is a positive in terms of not feeling pressure, just living in the moment and maximising everything?

KA: Yeah, I mean, for sure, I’m just enjoying the driving, enjoying the car, enjoying the weekend, and that was a big step compared to last year. It’s really nice to be able to enjoy the sessions, and I’m looking forward to tomorrow.  

Q: Max, so close. It’s the thing around Monaco, right? It’s about the marginal gains. But you must be happy to be at least fighting at the front again?

Max VERSTAPPEN: I mean, if you would have told me yesterday that we’d be on the front row, I would have definitely taken it. And also, this morning I think we had quite some difficulties with the car, so heading into qualifying and being up there, I think, was extremely positive. Overall, of course, very happy with how qualifying went and how all the laps went, even though you have to deal with all the traffic and, of course, the walls. But yeah, I’m happy. Happy to be on the front row, and then tomorrow let’s see in the start. These cars are quite complicated to start, so I have two cars behind me that start quite well, but we’ll see. This was a good day, and I definitely enjoyed it in qualifying.  

Q: The adrenaline must be super high. How is it with these cars around the track? Obviously, change of regulations. Do you still get that buzz? I mean, the cars look like they’re on edge the whole time.

MV: Yeah, they are more on edge than, let’s say, the last few years. And then also with the power that kicks in, the same with driveability and shifts; it’s all a bit different. But once you get on top of it and you can get a clean lap out of it, and especially in qualifying, flat out on the limit, it’s very rewarding when it goes well.  

Q: Lewis, it’s been a real pleasure watching you this weekend. It’s great to see you pushing the car to the limit. Feels like you’re properly on it with the car around here.

Lewis HAMILTON: Well, congrats to Kimi. Mega, mega job. Having your first pole here is so, so special, and obviously we’ve got such a great crowd here, so it’s a beautiful day. Tough for us. I think we were looking so strong in practice, and we barely changed anything, but the car was drastically different once we got to qualifying for some reason, so we have to take a deep dive into that. But I gave it absolutely everything. I was as close to the barriers as I could be, and what a privilege it is to be here, to be one of the 22 drivers in Formula 1 getting to do this still. And yeah, I love every second of it.  

Q: Well, yeah, you’ve been doing it for a few years now – and still! LH: I’ve still not got grey hairs through, so good.  

Q: It's just amazing to see you pushing the limits of the car. Do you think this year is extremely tight in terms of the performance of everyone out on track? I’ve never seen a qualifying session like that in Formula 1.

LH: I think it is definitely very, very close between us all. You saw. I mean, jeez, I thought I almost maybe nearly had it, I don’t know, and then Max put in a good time and then Kimi. And I think it’s great to see how close all the cars are. I think we lost something going into today, and that’s what we need to try to figure out. But a big thank you to the guys back at the factory and the guys here. We haven’t added performance this weekend, but we’re obviously there in the fight. But I’m really keen and looking forward to seeing what developments we bring in future.  

Q: Kimi, very well done. It looked like an extraordinary lap. Just how good was it?

KA: Yeah, it was a good lap, a very good lap. I was able to put everything together, and it was so tight. To be fair, I did not expect Max and Red Bull to be there because in FP3 they had a struggle, but it was an incredible job by them to recover and to be there because it was such a tight fight. But I’m very happy to come away with the pole and now looking forward to tomorrow.  

Q: You say you were able to put it all together, but was there one corner or one sector where you were particularly happy with the car?

KA: To be fair, at the start of the session, the quali was a little bit more difficult than we expected. The track felt a little bit weird, a little bit off, so the car felt a little bit more oversteery than FP3, for example. But then the grip came back, and the car just started to come more together. I was happy mainly in the lab with Sector 2, where we struggled a little bit more during the weekend, especially in five, six, seven and eight. But yeah, it was good. Very happy with that.  

Q: And Kimi, just from a driving point of view, just how much of a rush was Q3 for you today?

KA: Big one. Still kind of shaking, to be fair. It’s just super intense. You have no margin for mistakes, and when it’s about polishing those last two or three tenths, it’s never easy. Especially when Max is so close, and also the Ferrari, Lewis, has been so strong the whole weekend. Definitely it’s not easy, but obviously very happy to come away with pole today.  

KA: Yeah, for sure. I mean, I know who is behind it, and I know they’re very good, so for sure they’re going to push me, and they’re going to try to put pressure. But yeah, first of all, I’ll try to get a good start. Canada was a step forward, but tomorrow, of course, are different conditions. And then we’ll see. You still need to have a good pace in hand because tyre degradation might be bigger than what we anticipate. I mean, we didn’t really try any long runs. We did only a few laps, so we don’t really have as much data. But for sure we know that it’s very difficult to overtake, but you still need to have the pace because, in case something happens, you need to push.  

Q: Max, let’s come to you. Kimi says he wasn’t expecting you to be challenging for the pole in the way you were. Are you surprised by the pace of your car?

MV: Quite a bit, after this morning… We were like nine tenths off! I was confident that we would make some improvements heading into qualifying but not fight for pole, honestly. When I jumped into the car, I was like, "OK, let’s try and recover a bit. Maybe top five; that was the target." But I’d say from quite early on in qualifying, the car felt a bit better. I mean, we still have our little problems, and especially in the middle sector, that’s where we lose the most, where you have a few kerbs that you have to take and there are a few bumps in the track. It’s just a little bit more complicated at the moment for our car. But I still think that overall, we had a very good qualifying. We were up there; we were fighting for the pole. So even if you would have told me after yesterday, where we looked quite OK, to be starting on the front row, I would have immediately taken it. So yeah, for us it’s been a very good turnaround. Yesterday I was quite happy. This morning, I was really not happy, and now I’m fairly happy again. So that’s of course good when it matters. This was, of course, the most important session of the weekend. Of course, tomorrow there is still a start, which this year seems a little bit more critical to get right compared to other years, where it was not such a big deal, I would say. So that’s still something that we have to look at. But overall, for us, this has been a very positive weekend.  

Q: And Max, when it’s so close, just forty-three thousandths off pole, can you visualise where you lost that time? It’s such a small amount.

MV: I never do that, to be honest. It’s close. Sometimes you are just ahead, sometimes you’re just behind; that’s life. But for me, I was happy with my lap. So, when I crossed the line, I was like, "OK, if someone beats that, fair enough. That’s part of it." And we just came up short. But like I explained, we had a very difficult FP3, so to be in that final quali is a great effort from the team.  

Q: Alright, Max, very well done to you. Good luck tomorrow. And Lewis, if we could come to you. Very well done to you. You look like you’ve been enjoying yourself out there all weekend. You’re two tenths off pole. Was that the maximum from the car?

LH: Yes, unfortunately, today. Big congrats to Kimi. We were looking really strong throughout the weekend, and it’s always so much fun driving around this track. I felt great in the car, and I think we made progress yesterday. Then coming into today, we took a bit of a step back, lost some performance overnight, and then going into qualifying, the car was really in a bad place. So, you could see in Q1, I was like seven tenths down or something like that and had to make huge adjustments to the wing in order to try and rebalance the car for some reason. So, I’m not quite sure exactly what went wrong. We’ll deep dive into it. But I think ultimately we lost the chance to fight for the front row going into quali with the balance that we ended up with. It was a bit of a surprise, but I’m still grateful. I got everything I could out of it at the end with the balance that I had. The car was on the edge; I was on the edge, as much as I could be.  

LH: I don’t think we went the wrong way with set-up. That’s the thing. Again, the tiniest tweaks, like a millimetre here, a millimetre there. The tiniest tweaks. But we really needed to look into what switched because the car was completely different to what it was before, and I didn’t have any rear end for some reason, which I’d had, good balance most of the weekend. So yeah, I do think with the pace that we had yesterday, I think we could have been closer. Whether, you know, these guys really started putting out some amazing times at the end, so fair play to them. We’ll push hard tomorrow. Hopefully we can keep up, and who knows, maybe we could have a really good start.  

Q: Lewis, final one for me. You’ve driven a lot of different cars here in Monaco. Just how much did you enjoy driving the 2026 car today?

LH: I think it's probably one of my least favourites of all the generations I’ve driven around here. Just the super light downforce. It really is like a step down of generation of car, grip-wise. Our pressures are super high. Even though we have a hundred points or so less downforce this year, we have much higher [pressures]. Back in the days, we used to run like 16 psi, and now we’re up at 28 or 26 or something crazy. Maybe here it’s like 24, so very high. Ultimate mechanical grip is not what it used to be. I remember when I was here in 2007 and 2008; there was so much more grip. It was even more fun back then. But it wasn’t terrible [today]. I still had fun, but comparing all the generations, maybe 2020 was probably the best period for us, grip-wise. MV: Because of grip, yeah. LH: Yeah.  

Q: (Fred Ferret – L’Équipe) Question to Kimi. How is the situation with your start? And another question for Max and Lewis. Do you have any advice for the pole man in Monaco for the start tomorrow?

KA: I mean, starting in Montreal, for the first time I didn’t lose, well, I still lost a place on Sunday, but for the first time I didn’t lose like six or seven places. So, it was a step forward. It’s a pretty short run into Turn 1 in Monaco, so you just need to get a clean start; don’t try to do the magic start, and then we’ll see from there.

Q: Any advice, guys?

MV: So, when the lights go out, you wait one second. That’s my advice!
LH: Yeah, I’m one step behind, so two seconds.
KA: Two seconds, OK!  

Q: (Jon Noble – The Race) Lewis, you said earlier that the set-up didn’t change much overnight. What’s your best guess about what made the difference from yesterday to today? Was it tyre preparation? Was the track ramping up? Did that shift the car balance?

LH: I really don’t know. I mean, all weekend, I think for us, apart from wanting more downforce globally, when we arrived on Thursday, we saw other people, those guys with trick additions to their wings; we didn’t have that, which was a little bit of a surprise. But as I said, our pace was looking good. In general, to go quicker, we needed more front-end. We got to qualifying and had a lot of front end, and I had to take out, like, ten holes of the front wing for some reason. So, once I took out the ten holes, the car was a little bit more reasonable by my last lap in Q3. But I needed that balance to start in Q1 and then build upon that, because it’s all about confidence. It was completely gone in Q1, and then I was trying to pull back what I could. So, I’m relatively happy with P3. Obviously, P1 is what I really wanted, and I really felt like the team deserved to finally get it. And I felt capable. I’m in a really good place with the car; I’m in a really good place with the team, and you can see that I have decent pace still in me. There’s no lack of pace, which I’m really grateful for and happy about, regardless of all the negative comments people have made over the times. So, it’s good. Just keep on putting the work in, and I’ll keep showing up, and I’ll keep delivering.  

Q: (Christian Menath – Motorsport-Magazin) A question for Max, and if Lewis or Kimi wants to touch on it as well, you’re more than welcome. You were already talking about the chassis regulations here. Max, you haven’t been the biggest fan of the engine regulation, but this qualifying here in Monaco was, for the first time, completely flat out. Did you enjoy it?

MV: I think the chassis regulation is not that bad at all. In general, with the cars being a little bit more narrow and stuff, I think it’s alright. Also, I quite like now that the vision on the front axle is a bit better around apexes again, instead of that thing we had above the tyre before. So yeah, I mean, that’s good. Of course, if you can go flat out and you can just select the gears that you want to use in the corners, it’s always going to be better. So, I finally felt just myself again in the car, let’s say, with the way you want to use the gears. Unfortunately, of course, we can’t do that in too many places on the calendar, but that’s what then makes it more and more natural to drive for sure.  

Q: Kimi or Lewis, any thoughts on the PU? KA: Yeah, I have to agree. Even though our PU is great, today was the first qualifying where, also on the out-lap, I didn’t have to manage the battery or look at the steering wheel to manage the power, just the combustion, to maximise combustion and not use any battery opening the lap. So, it was a qualifying session where you were just thinking about driving and going as fast as you can.  

Q: (Ludo Van Denderen – GPblog.com) Lewis and Max, you’ve won here; you’ve had multiple championships. Now you see Kimi accelerating here; great lap. Do you see the real future champion in this guy if he does this?

MV: Yeah, for sure. I think you see a few guys grow up from younger categories that have something special, and when they switch categories, they are immediately quick. I think that was quite clear with Kimi, so that was not a surprise. But then, of course, when you get to Formula 1, it’s not only talent. Things have to come together. You need to become a more all-around driver, and then, of course, you need to have the package to be able to do it. But I think this year he’s showing that once he has a package that can do it, he is delivering as a driver. So that’s great to see, and that’s what he has to do.  

Q: (Ronald Vording – Motorsport.com) It’s one for Kimi, specifically on the final sector. How stressful has that been? Because Max just put in the quickest time, you probably saw on your delta that you’re on a good one as well, but how do you then nail the risk-versus-reward judgement in that last sector?

KA: To be fair, I didn’t know how much I was improving. I just saw it before the time of the delta, and then I saw it on the finish line. I didn’t know the time that Max did when I was doing the lap. It felt like a good lap; it felt like things just came together, but I didn’t know where I was. I just felt especially that sector two felt great, but then, of course, I got the confirmation on the radio. So yeah, obviously it’s so intense here that what you just think about is trying to drive as fast as you can without obviously making mistakes, and then obviously you see once you cross the finish line where you end up.  

Q: (Graham Harris – Motorsport Monday) Question for all three of you. With the narrower cars and the fact that you can go flat out and you’re not watching for batteries, do you think there might be a bit of overtaking during this Grand Prix?

KA: I think it's still very difficult unless I wait for one second for the light, or two seconds [laughs], or you make a big mistake. I think it’s very difficult. Just because, yes, it’s still Monaco.
MV: Yeah, just look at the other categories, right? Even F2 and F3, it’s very hard. It’s just a little bit the layout, the curvature of some corners; they don’t lend themselves to even having a go because you can easily cover it off. So yeah, it’s hard.  

Q: (Phil Duncan – Press Association) Just one for Lewis. I was going to ask you basically if you think you can win tomorrow; given the comments about the overtaking, it might be a bit difficult, but do you think you’ve got a chance to win the race tomorrow?

LH: I mean, we know how these races go. It’s very difficult. I don’t think there’s overtaking. I hope that we can get a really good start and maybe apply some pressure to the two. Kind of need rain probably, but nothing’s impossible. I’ll keep applying the pressure. It’s going to be very hard to beat these two. You’ve got two great drivers who are in quick cars and have been very quick all weekend. So, it’s a shame this race is generally often such a procession in the sense that we’re just often following each other, and the car is always overheating and the brakes are always overheating, just with the way the track is. And obviously we only have really like one stop because the tyres are so hard and often go so far. So, I hope there’s a genius way of making this race even more fun from a driver’s perspective and from a fan's perspective in the future. But I don’t know. I’m going to still give it absolutely everything and try and hassle them as much as I can and try and force them into not making certain corners.  

Q: (Luis Vasconcelos – Formula Press) Kimi, you thought Miami was going to be tough; you won. You thought Monaco was not going to be a great circuit for Mercedes; you’re on pole position. Where did the car surprise you? In which areas did the car surprise you this weekend? And after this, is there any track you still fear?

KA: To be fair, I have to be honest, the team did an incredible, big turnaround compared to yesterday in terms of set-up. Yesterday, I’m not going to lie, we were struggling. So, the team did a great job with overnight correlation to make big changes to the set-up, and the car just felt much more alive this morning. It was also more forgiving, much more to kerb cutting and bumps. So, the team did a great job with the set-up, and that was what made us gain so much in terms of performance between yesterday and today and allowed us to fight for pole.  
ENDS