Qualifying for the second E-Prix in Monaco took place under challenging conditions, with standing water on the track. The drivers faced a tough test, with little to no experience with the tyres on wet.
Group Stage
Group A
Group A — featuring Rowland, da Costa, de Vries, Mortara, Hughes, Evans, di Grassi, Ticktum, Nato, Frijns, and Maloney — started cautiously, taking time to understand the grip levels on the slippery circuit.
Issues occurred across the field: da Costa went wide, Rowland ran completely off track on his fast lap, and most drivers made small mistakes without putting together a perfect run. Nato even brushed the barrier but managed to finish his lap.
Da Costa briefly topped the timesheets before de Vries went P1 by a massive seven-tenths margin. Rowland and Ticktum followed, rounding out the top four advancing to the duels.
Group B
By the time Group B started, the conditions had improved significantly. As seen in Group A, the final laps would be the quickest.
Ticktum’s fastest lap from Group A was deleted in the meantime, with no change in the results, as his second lap still put him through into Duels.
Despite better track conditions, clean laps remained rare. Wehrlein went wide and nearly hit the barrier, Günther had a major snap, and with three minutes left, Bird clipped the wall after a lock-up and slammed into the Sainte-Dévote barriers. The crash brought out a yellow flag, quickly followed by a red one. The McLaren driver reported he was okay and walked away uninjured.
With just over two and a half minutes remaining — and Vandoorne, Vergne, Günther, and Cassidy holding the provisional top spots — pressure mounted. After the red flag, drivers had time for only one flying lap.
Cassidy was first across the line, briefly taking P1, but was soon shuffled down as others completed their laps. In the end, Buemi, Vergne, Vandoorne, and Günther progressed to the duels thanks to their final efforts.
Duels
Quaterfinals
The first quarterfinal saw Rowland take on da Costa, with the odds heavily in Rowland’s favour based on fan predictions. Those predictions proved accurate, as Rowland gained more than five-tenths by the tunnel section — a gap that grew to a massive 1.4 seconds by the end of the lap.
Meanwhile, it began to spit rain lightly in the pit lane again. Nevertheless, Ticktum and de Vries lined up for the next quarterfinal duel. Despite Monaco’s reputation for tight margins in qualifying, Ticktum was already losing over a second before he made a mistake and missed the chicane entirely. He aborted the lap, and de Vries advanced.
Vandoorne faced Vergne in another duel between two former Monaco winners. They started the lap close together, but a few snaps and wobbles from Vandoorne allowed Vergne to build a lead and win the duel by almost eight-tenths. Replays showed Vergne clipping the wall — making his lap time all the more impressive.
In worsening conditions, Günther and Buemi contested the final quarterfinal. Buemi struggled early on, sliding wide, while Günther also went off-line over the kerbs but still crossed the line six-tenths ahead. He progressed — though there was a possible track limits violation under review. Nothing came out of it though.
Semifinals
De Vries met Rowland in the first semifinal, but in bizarre fashion, both went off at Sainte-Dévote. Their teams urged them on, but de Vries took significantly longer to rejoin the track and finished over two seconds behind.
For the second semifinal, Vergne started faster in the second semifinal, though Günther began to close the gap. Both drivers ran wide in the pool section, exceeding track limits. Vergne crossed the line more than two seconds ahead, seemingly winning the duel.
Finals
Vergne’s happiness didn’t last long. With both his and Günther’s laps deleted for track limits, race control announced that there would be no final. As a result, Rowland was awarded pole position, with Nyck de Vries starting second.