Red Bull’s Max Verstappen grabbed pole from Aston Martin’s Fernando Alonso in a gripping qualifying session at the Monaco Grand Prix.

The Dutchman was more than 0.2 seconds behind after the first two sectors of his last attempt but a stunning final few corners saw him take pole position by 0.084secs.

Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc was third, just 0.022secs behind Alonso.

Lewis Hamilton could manage only sixth fastest in the upgraded Mercedes after a frenetic and difficult session, behind Alpine’s Esteban Ocon and Ferrari’s Carlos Sainz.

However, they all moved up one place after Leclerc was later handed a three-place grid penalty for impeding McLaren’s Lando Norris in the tunnel.

Verstappen’s team-mate Sergio Perez, the Dutchman’s only vague title rival, crashed in the first session and will start last.

So close for Alonso

Perez’s crash only heightened the sense of anticipation early in a qualifying session that had already started with a sense an upset might just be possible.

The stakes are high around the tight and twisty streets, and the barriers always there to punish the smallest error.

And it was Alonso who emerged as the closest threat to Verstappen.

The veteran Spaniard came into the weekend speaking about the race as a potential one-off opportunity to win, and he was true to his word.

Competitive throughout qualifying, Alonso displaced Verstappen at the top of the times after his first run in the top 10 shoot-out, only for the Dutchman to go back on top with a second lap on his first set of tyres.

“I fought like an animal,” Alonso said to his engineer. “Yeah, we could see,” he was told in reply.

And on the second run it looked like he might just be able to grab his first pole since the 2012 German Grand Prix.

Leclerc had just gone fastest, only for Alonso to displace him, and when Verstappen completed the second sector between Tabac and the entry to the Swimming Pool more than 0.2secs down, a popular pole looked to be on.

But Verstappen pulled out all the stops through the Swimming Pool, Rascasse and the final corner, Antony Noghes, and just managed to sneak ahead.

Verstappen said: “We knew this was going to be little bit of a struggle for us this weekend to get everything together, in qualifying you need to go all out.

“My first sector wasn’t ideal. I was a bit cautious. I knew I was behind and I had to push fast out to get back the lap time and luckily I did. I gave it everything, clipped a few barriers, but you have to be on pole here.”

Alonso said: “I feel good. Pole position means a lot here in Monaco. But today Max was a little bit faster. First row is quite a big thing for us here. The last sector seems our weakest point of the circuit.

“Let’s see tomorrow what we can do in terms of strategy, if there is any weather coming or something, but we will try to win.

“It is very short into Turn One. But we have very good starts and Max is a bit inconsistent.”

Ferrari instability hampers Leclerc

Although Leclerc briefly popped to the top of the times with his final lap, he never quite looked capable of taking his third pole in a row at Monaco.

The Ferrari’s inherent instability took the edge off his ability to attack on a street circuit he loves more than any other but he did emerge as superior to Sainz, who had appeared to have an edge earlier in the weekend.

Ocon’s lap to go fourth in the Alpine, who have had a fraught season last year and were called dilettantes by their own chief executive officer Laurent Rossi last time out in Miami, was impressive.

And Mercedes felt that a set-up decision going into qualifying had hampered their hopes of being higher up.

As a result, Hamilton struggled throughout qualifying.

The seven-time champion crashed at the end of final practice and he was very nearly knocked out of both the first and second sessions after scrappy performances in both. He just managed to scrape through both times with one final heart-in-the-mouth final lap.

In the end team boss Toto Wolff said he was relatively satisfied to be 0.36secs off pole after a difficult session even if he said the positions of the drivers in sixth and eighth were “not OK”.

Norris made it into the final session despite clouting the inside wall on the exit of the harbour front chicane at the end of Q2, breaking his steering arm and leading him to hit the outside wall at the next corner, Tabac.

McLaren’s mechanics managed to get him out again for the final session, but he could set only 10th fastest.

His team-mate Oscar Piastri impressed in managing a lap just 0.018secs slower to line up 11th for his first Monaco Grand Prix.