Hamilton faces tough sledding at Monaco GP

Ferrari driver Kimi Raikkonen has taken pole position for Sunday’s Monaco Grand Prix and title contender Lewis Hamilton failed to make the Top 10 in a significant blow for Mercedes.

Ferrari has been quick all weekend and championship leader Sebastian Vettel starts on the front row alongside teammate Raikkonen. Vettel left it late, but pushed Mercedes driver Valtteri Bottas back to third. Red Bull’s Max Verstappen starts fourth ahead of teammate Daniel Ricciardo, last year’s pole sitter.

Raikkonen’s last pole was at the French GP in 2008. The 37-yearold Finnish driver got a leading time of one minute 12.178 seconds — ahead of Vettel’s 1:12.221.

“It doesn’t guarantee anything for tomorrow. Nevertheless, I’ll happily take it,” Raikkonen said. “I was very happy with the car. It was nice, straightforward qualifying.”

Pole position is even more valuable at Monaco, the hardest track to overtake another driver in F1.

Given the reliability and speed of Ferrari’s car, that offers Raikkonen — the 2007 F1 champion — a good chance of securing a 21st win and his first since driving for Lotus at the season-opening Australian GP in 2013.

Raikkonen is fourth in the championship standings and already 55 points behind Vettel. But he dismissed any talk that he might receive team orders to make way for Vettel, who has 44 career wins.

“I don’t know why everyone thinks it will be different tomorrow than the last two years,” Raikkonen said. “Just trying to make a stupid story or something. It’s going to be a long, difficult race.”

Even more so for Hamilton, whose chances of a third win at Monaco and 56th overall now look extremely remote.

The British driver headed into the weekend six points behind Vettel and aiming to move level with Ayrton Senna’s total of 65 pole positions. Instead, the three-time F1 champion could only get the 14th-best time.

While Vettel and Raikkonen took 1-2 earlier in final practice, Hamilton was fifth. His form failed to improve in qualifying, twice wobbling on the track after losing grip.

“This weekend has been a bit tricky for us,” said Bottas, who clocked 1:12.223. “It was quite difficult to get a lap together and Lewis also struggled with that.”

Montreal’s Lance Stroll was 18th in qualifying.