Scuderia Toro Rosso’s Brendon Hartley remains hopeful that he can secure a good result from the 2018 Monaco Grand Prix, despite missing out on a rub of the green during a frantic qualifying session around the streets of the Principality this afternoon.

Hartley’s pace has been impressive throughout the weekend so far, finishing Saturday morning’s final free practice session of the weekend in P7 and confident this weekend would deliver his strongest Formula 1 starting position to date. Around a circuit that both he favours and appears to suit the STR13, Brendon initially shot into the top 10 as the 18-minute qualifying one got under way.

However, as is often the case, the tight nature of the famous street circuit resulted in plenty of traffic and yellow flags during the session, hampering Brendon’s final two attempts as the times tumbled around him. The resulting drama left the Kiwi down in P16, just one place outside of the all-important top 15 to move onto qualifying two.

For tomorrow’s race, Brendon will start from P15 following Romain Grosjean’s three-place grid penalty carrying over from the Spanish Grand Prix.

Brendon Hartley – #28 Scuderia Toro Rosso:
“I’m really disappointed getting knocked out in Q1, especially after ending practice this morning in P7 and I was really happy with the car. We’ve been looking strong all weekend, but when it came to qualifying I wasn’t as happy with the car in terms of balance, so there’s a bit to be looked at there. It’s always a tough one around here, it can be a lottery with traffic and yellow flags, and in the last two attempts I had in Qualifying there was a lot of both, so it really wasn’t ideal – especially since it’s very difficult to pass around here. It will be tough tomorrow, but our car looks good so we’ll see what we can do!”

Timetable:
Race – 78 Laps
15:10 – 17:10 (Local Time – UTC+2)
01:10 – 03:10 (New Zealand – UTC+12)