The 2026 Monaco Grand Prix starts at 3:00 p.m. local time in Monte Carlo on Sunday, June 8. For everyone watching from elsewhere: that’s 2:00 p.m. UK (BST), 9:00 a.m. U.S. Eastern, and 6:00 a.m. Pacific. The race runs 78 laps of the 3.337 km Circuit de Monaco — 260 km total, the shortest race distance on the F1 calendar.
In the U.S., F1’s new home is Apple TV, which signed an exclusive five-year broadcast deal starting this season. ESPN is out. Apple TV is in. UK viewers get the race live on Sky Sports F1 and Sky Sports Main Event, with highlights on Channel 4.
Monaco Grand Prix 2026 Qualifying Results: Antonelli Steals It at the Death
The Full Starting Grid
| Pos | Driver | Team |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Kimi Antonelli | Mercedes |
| 2 | Max Verstappen | Red Bull |
| 3 | Lewis Hamilton | Ferrari |
| 4 | Charles Leclerc | Ferrari |
| 5 | Isack Hadjar | Red Bull |
| 6 | George Russell | Mercedes |
| 7 | Oscar Piastri | McLaren |
| 8 | Lando Norris | McLaren |
| 9 | Pierre Gasly | Alpine |
| 10 | Liam Lawson | Racing Bulls |
| 11 | Alex Albon | Williams |
| 12 | Carlos Sainz | Williams |
| 13 | Nico Hulkenberg | Audi |
| 14 | Franco Colapinto | Alpine |
| 15 | Arvid Lindblad | Racing Bulls |
| 16 | Gabriel Bortoleto | Audi |
| 17 | Esteban Ocon | Haas |
| 18 | Sergio Perez | Cadillac |
| 19 | Ollie Bearman | Haas |
| 20 | Valtteri Bottas | Cadillac |
| 21 | Fernando Alonso | Aston Martin |
| 22 | Lance Stroll | Aston Martin |
What Actually Happened in Q3
Ferrari had dominated every session since Thursday’s practice. Charles Leclerc topped FP1. Lewis Hamilton topped FP2. The Scuderia was running 1-2 in both sessions, on a track where their SF-26’s strength in slow and medium-speed corners plays perfectly. Every reasonable reading of the weekend said this was Ferrari’s race to lose.
They found a way.
Leclerc held provisional pole in the closing minutes of Q3, then lost it to Max Verstappen. His final attempt to reclaim it ended in the barriers. The Monegasque, racing at his home circuit in front of his hometown crowd, hit the wall and could only salvage fourth. Hamilton qualified third, having described what he’d need for a realistic shot at victory as “the best start we’ve ever had.”
The man who took pole was Kimi Antonelli. Lap time: 1:12.051. Margin over Verstappen: 0.043 seconds. It was the kind of lap that arrives at the end of qualifying when everyone expects someone else to have it. Mercedes brought a rear wing upgrade to Monaco that, per team sources, had a projected lap time gain larger than Antonelli’s winning margin. Whether that’s the full explanation or the convenient one is a conversation for after the race.
Antonelli is looking for his fifth consecutive Grand Prix victory. He leads the Drivers’ Championship by 43 points over teammate George Russell, who qualified a perplexing sixth and admitted his poor Monaco performance extends beyond this single weekend.
McLaren, who won here in 2025 with Lando Norris, were the weekend’s biggest underperformers. Norris publicly called the result a “reality check.” Piastri and Norris start seventh and eighth respectively — positions that, on a circuit where overtaking is roughly as common as a sensible Aston Martin strategy call, represent a near-certain points loss.
Fred Vasseur Is in Hospital, and Ferrari Still Qualified Third and Fourth
The strangest subplot of Saturday at Monaco had nothing to do with anything that happened on track.
Ferrari released a statement Saturday morning: “Fred Vasseur will not be present at the circuit today. Following some medical checks, Fred will remain under observation at a local medical facility. No further medical information will be provided. We wish Fred a speedy recovery and look forward to seeing him back at the track soon.”
Vasseur, 58, had been at the circuit on Friday evening after completing media duties following FP2. He watched his drivers go 1-2 in both practice sessions and, in his own words, warned against reading too much into Friday pace at Monaco because “you have to anticipate the evolution of the track” and “be always one session ahead.” He was walking out of the track in good spirits. Somewhere between then and Saturday morning, a medical situation required admission to a local facility.
Deputy Team Principal Jerome d’Ambrosio — former F1 driver, ex-Mercedes, in the Ferrari deputy role since October 2024 — took over the pit wall for qualifying. Ferrari has not provided any further details on Vasseur’s condition beyond the initial statement. No update has been issued since.
The team managed, under the circumstances, to qualify third and fourth. That the emotional and operational weight of a team principal hospitalization during the most important qualifying session of the season didn’t produce a more visible collapse is worth noting. D’Ambrosio’s first Monaco Grand Prix in charge of Ferrari’s pit wall will be Sunday’s race.
Kim Kardashian Made Her F1 Paddock Debut. Monaco Was Ready for It.
The paddock at Monaco is the most photographed sporting venue on earth during race weekend. Celebrities, royalty, and billionaires are part of the furniture at this particular race. Still, Kimi Antonelli snatching pole in the final seconds of Q3 was briefly the second biggest story coming out of Saturday afternoon.
Kim Kardashian arrived in Monte Carlo on Friday, spent time aboard a yacht on the French Riviera, and walked into the Circuit de Monaco paddock on Saturday morning for qualifying — her first F1 paddock appearance since going public with Lewis Hamilton earlier this year. She was accompanied by her sister Khloe. Both were photographed above the Ferrari garage watching qualifying, which is exactly where you’d be if you were supporting Lewis Hamilton and attempting not to be photographed while being extremely visible.
The relationship between Kardashian and Hamilton had been building in public since February, when reports emerged they’d spent a weekend together at a private retreat in the Cotswolds. Since then: the Super Bowl, family dinners in Los Angeles, cycling in New York, and finally, on Thursday, an Instagram post that formalized what the tabloids had been running for months.
Hamilton qualified third. His own reaction to Kardashian’s paddock debut was characteristically composed, but the F1 account’s official post — “Welcome to the paddock” — said everything that needed saying about how the sport intends to leverage the relationship. F1’s expansion into U.S. mainstream culture over the past several years has been built partly on exactly this kind of celebrity crossover. Kardashian arriving in the paddock at Monaco generates the kind of reach that no media buy could replicate.
Hamilton’s Monaco record is already striking — three victories here in 2008, 2016, and 2019. Starting from third on a track where qualifying position historically predicts finishing position more accurately than any other race on the calendar, his race depends almost entirely on whether Antonelli or Verstappen makes a mistake out front. The odds are not favoring that.
Alexandra Leclerc: Monaco’s Other Fashion Story
Before Kim Kardashian arrived on Saturday, the paddock’s most closely watched style presence was already one weekend into her Monaco schedule.
Alexandra Leclerc — married to Charles Leclerc in an intimate ceremony in Monaco in February, formerly known as Alexandra Saint Mleux — has built a genuine fashion following through her paddock appearances since her white Meshki dress went viral at the 2023 Monaco Grand Prix. She works with stylist Carlotta Constant, who has described the couple’s aesthetic as “effortless, elegant, and never overdone.”
For her first Monaco Grand Prix as a married woman and a Leclerc, she arrived Friday in head-to-toe Jacquemus: a white asymmetric mini dress with a breezy cotton skirt, multiple petticoats, and a back bow, paired with mint-colored mesh ballerina pumps and a small mint Valérie bag. The mint shoes against the white dress is the kind of detail that, when it lands correctly, makes something timeless look current. It landed correctly.
The Saturday crash that put her husband fourth on the grid instead of first was, from a fashion standpoint, the only thing that went wrong all weekend. Charles was aiming for another Monaco pole at his home race — he holds the record for most pole positions in the modern F1 era at this circuit — and lost it in the barriers on his final Q3 attempt. Alexandra watched from the garage.
Constant has since signed a multi-year extension alongside Charles’s Ferrari contract renewal, which Ferrari confirmed ahead of this weekend. The stylist continues to build paddock looks around the city each race is held in — a conceptual layer that’s become part of what makes Leclerc a genuine fashion story rather than a WAG sidebar.
The Race: What Sunday Actually Looks Like
Pole at Monaco converts to victory at a rate that makes most other circuits look genuinely competitive by comparison. The barriers are too close, the track too narrow, the opportunity to overtake too infrequent. What matters most after Saturday’s qualifying is what happens at Sainte-Dévote on the opening lap.
Antonelli starts first, Verstappen second, Hamilton third. Leclerc starts fourth and will spend most of the race trying to find a way past Hamilton — which on this circuit means hoping for a safety car, a pitstop window, or a mechanical failure ahead. None of those are things you can plan for.
Mercedes has won all five Grands Prix of the 2026 season so far. Antonelli needs a clean launch and clean laps. Ferrari needed a clean Q3 lap and didn’t get one. Their race is now a recovery exercise rather than the dominant victory the Friday sessions suggested was possible.
McLaren, starting seventh and eighth, is essentially racing for points.
Weather forecast for Sunday: dry, 22°C, light winds. No rain variable to shake the order.
Lights out at 3:00 p.m. Monaco time.
About the Author
Your 33-year-old F1-obsessed cousin who live-texted the entire qualifying session, has a Kimi Antonelli pole lap screenshot as their lock screen, and will absolutely stay awake until 3 a.m. to watch the race before immediately sending seventeen voice notes about the Leclerc crash.
Discover More
- Official F1 Hub: Monaco Grand Prix 2026
- Ferrari Official: Team Statement on Fred Vasseur
- Mercedes-AMG F1: Kimi Antonelli Qualifies on Pole
