Ocon pushed '100%' to shock Monaco second row start

Esteban Ocon says he pushed "100%" in qualifying for the Monaco Grand Prix and admitted that he hit the wall on his way to a second row start.

It is the best qualifying performance for the Alpine driver so far this season, with the Frenchman nearly managing to steal pole after putting in an early effort during Q3 that was one tenth of a second quicker than Max Verstappen.

"Less than two tenths away from pole position. Extremely happy with how we feel the weekend until now in every session that we've done," he told media, including RacingNews365.com.

"I've felt confident in the car from run one of FP1 being able to push a lot harder than usual, and have let it go 100% on that last lap.

"I've hit the wall very, very hard a couple of times, but that definitely gave us a good amount of lap time."

If Charles Leclerc is penalised for blocking Lando Norris during his run, then Ocon could be promoted to third place on the grid for the race.

When asked about the prospect of starting behind Verstappen and Alonso for the run to the first corner, the Alpine driver hopes that his former teammate attempts heroics into Sainte Devote.

He added: "Fernando is starting second. Pretty sure he's going to take all the risks in [Turn] one, so hopefully he creates a mess and that opens up the way for us."

Ocon explains why Alpine did early run

One of the key elements during qualifying was track evolution, which enabled Verstappen to snatch pole away from Alonso in the dying moments of Q3.

Alpine was reluctant to run both Ocon and Gasly with minutes left on the clock through fears that the session could be stopped by an incident, which is what happened last time out when Leclerc crashed in Miami.

"We got done in Miami exactly for that. We left late, we got done by the the red flag of Charles [Leclerc] towards the end.

"We wanted to avoid that, we wanted to go earlier with the two sets and that's what we did. Unfortunately, there was no red flag for us today but it could have well paid if [if it did come out]."