Lando Norris banished his qualifying blues to claim pole position for the Monaco Grand Prix.
The McLaren driver set a new record around the streets of Monte Carlo to beat local hero Charles Leclerc to pole by 0.109 seconds.
Norris, who has bemoaned his qualifying slip-ups throughout the season, put it together at the death to clinch his first pole since the season-opener in Melbourne.
Oscar Piastri, who leads his McLaren team-mate by 13 points at the top of the championship standings, will start Sunday’s race from third ahead of Ferrari’s Lewis Hamilton.
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Max Verstappen, who clinched his second win of the season at Imola last weekend to close to within 22 points of Piastri, qualified fifth.
Leclerc, who sparked jubilation in the principality 12 months ago when he ended years of near misses to clinch his first home victory, topped all three practice sessions and looked well set to clinch a fourth Monaco pole in five years.
The Monegasque driver improved on his final run in qualifying but was undone by Norris’ blistering final lap.
“It has been a long time coming, I feel good,” said Norris. “I don’t think you realise how good this feels after a few qualifying struggles over last few months.
“This is probably the hardest place to do it. I am very pleased.”
A strong qualifying is particularly crucial in Monaco as the tight street circuit offers few overtaking opportunities in Sunday’s race.
The FIA has introduced a mandatory two pit-stop rule for this season in a bid to create more strategy options for the race.
Hamilton crashed in the closing stages of final practice, losing control of his Ferrari at Massenet and spinning into the barriers.
Ferrari were forced into extensive work on Hamilton’s car, including changing the nose, front wing and gearbox.
The seven-time world champion had to pull together a fast lap to make it out of Q1 but was then placed under investigation for impeding Verstappen.
Mercedes endured a miserable qualifying, with George Russell – fourth in the drivers’ standings – and Kimi Antonelli lining up 14th and 15th.
Antonelli crashed out at the end of Q1 after the 18-year-old blew his left front tyre having hit the barriers on the entry to the Nouvelle Chicane.
Russell was on the radio at the start of Q2 to report that he had lost power, with his car coming to halt in the middle of the tunnel – bringing out an inevitable red flag.
