A spectacular qualifying comes to an end with incidents and close calls throughout.
The top three were Max Verstappen, Fernando Alonso and Charles Leclerc, with Esteban Ocon and Carlos Sainz in the top five. A great session with four drivers from four different teams in the top four.
Sergio Perez did much worse than expected, as he crashed out in Q1 with a massive repair job for Red Bull before tomorrow.
Home favourite Leclerc couldn't find pace before the all-important Q3, but all eyes were on Mercedes' upgrades, which proved to do less than expected with them finishing 6th and 8th.
Many drivers found themselves in contention, with YukivTsunoda clinching provisional pole in Q2.
Here's a session-by-session recap of the afternoon:
Q1
Haas' Kevin Magnussen got a shaky start to qualifying as the team just finished rebuilding the car after a hydraulic failure in FP3.
Early runs from every driver gave surprising results with McLaren at the top of the timing sheet, but their runs were overshadowed by Sergio Perez's crash at Sainte Devote.
The Mexican carried too much speed into the first corner as Pierre Gasly was leaving the pits and hit his left sidepod into the wall after braking, similar to Alex Albon in FP1. The session was red-flagged with eleven minutes remaining.
Alonso gained provisional pole after the restart with Ocon and Gasly behind him.
Verstappen finished Q1 first with a time of 12:12.386, Tsunoda second and Albon rounding out the top three.
Alonso's results were not as strong as he would have hoped, finishing behind Lance Stroll.
There was big drama as Lewis Hamilton and Sainz were two big names in danger at the end of the session, but both found pace on their last laps with top-ten finishes.
Home favourite Leclerc finished tenth in the first session.
Drivers out were: Logan Sargeant, Magnussen, Nico Hulkenberg, Guanyu Zhou (who was in the top three at one point) and Perez.
Q2
Championship leader Verstappen was first out in Q2.
His first run was already faster than Q1, with a 1:12.038.
Early laps showed Mercedes' upgrades aren't as strong as previously hoped with both drivers looking nervous to push the car.
The first lap time under 1:12 was done by Verstappen with a 1:11.908.
Hamilton struggled as he complained of his rear suspension, his teammate going P3 halfway through the session.
Another scary qualifying for Hamilton as he managed to get into the final session of qualifying in fifth on his final lap.
Stroll was under investigation for missing the weighbridge on his way to the pit box.
Lando Norris had an incident in the second part of his final lap, which gave the McLaren mechanics a huge job to do on the suspension before Q3.
The session finished with Oscar Piastri, Nyck De Vries, Albon, Stroll and Valtteri Bottas out.
Q3
The most consequential Q3 started with Verstappen first out again, hoping to win his first legitimate Monaco pole (he only started on pole in here after Leclerc's engine failure).
Alonso topped the times after the first push laps were set with a 1:11.706.
With 6 minutes to go, Norris came out of his garage with his front left corner fixed. A 20-minute repair job was done in 10 minutes!
In the middle of the session, surprised fans saw Ocon gain a provisional pole with a 1:11.553!
The crowd roared with an extremely fast lap from Leclerc and Alonso, but it was Verstappen who took everyone's breath away after finding speed in the final sector of the lap.
He was two-tenths down after two sectors, but then somehow found three-tenths in the extremely short final section of the lap!
He finished with a lap time of 1:11.365 and Alonso, Leclerc, Ocon and Sainz start behind him.
Who to look out for
Verstappen is of course the favourite to win, but Monaco can be full of action so anyone in the top five can steal the crown.
Both Alpines, Gasly and Ocon especially, are the ones to look out for, as they both found pace in all qualifying sessions. Ocon was just one-tenth away from pole today.
There are rumours of rain and Monaco always has a very high chance of a safety car, so we can't wait for an action-packed race tomorrow afternoon.