Nine years is a long time to wait for anyone and for some, it is a time in the world that is markedly different than that of today. But for Formula 1 fans one thing has remained a constant; their near love and admiration for the tight-lipped but super fast Kimi Raikkonen who won his one and only F1 crown in his first year with Ferrari in 2007. And 2008 was the last time he was a consistent championship challenger, and the last time he scored pole position; which came at the French Grand Prix at Magny Cours.
The Ferrari and Finnish fans in attendance at the Monaco Grand Prix and the ones watching all over the world were treated to their favourite kind of deja vu as Raikkonen scored his first pole position in 128 races.
Raikkonen had looked surprisingly unmatched for the large part of qualifying and was also the fastest driver in the final free practice session. His lap of 1min.12.178sec around the 3.337km, 19-turn Circuit de Monaco was the fastest ever at the fabled street circuit as well as the fastest in its current configuration that has been used since 2015.
CLOSE RUN THING
Joining Raikkonen on the front row of the starting grid is Ferrari teammate and former four-time world champion Sebastian Vettel who was just 0.043 seconds slower. Mercedes AMG F1, however, had a far tougher time of it with former three-time champion Lewis Hamilton failing to make it out of the second of three segments of qualifying after McLaren-Honda's Stoffel Vandoorne crashed out towards the end of the session. Vandoorne crashed just as Hamilton was following him and certain to set a time fast enough to advance to the third and final segment when the track was placed under yellow flags and made it impossible for Hamilton to improve on his time.
It was also an unfortunate crash for McLaren as Vandoorne was seventh when he crashed and his teammate and one-time returnee Jenson Button - due to Fernando Alonso competing at the Indy 500 - was tenth. However, Button was handed a 15-place grid penalty due to McLaren being forced to change his engine and Vandoorne will start ninth as both drivers were technically a part of Q3.
THE BEST OF THE REST
Behind the top three - who represent the colossal tussle between Ferrari and Mercedes for the F1 crown - Max Verstappen and Daniel Ricciardo of Red Bull-Tag Heuer (Renault) were fourth and fifth, respectively ahead of Toro Rosso-Renault's Carlos Sainz Jr. Sergio Perez of Force India was seventh while Romain Grosjean of Haas-Ferrari was eighth.
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