Pascal Wehrlein (TAG-Heuer Porsche) blitzed the opposition around the prestigious Monaco street circuit to gain a clear run into the Qualifying Duels Final, where he saw off his DS Penske opponent Stoffel Vandoorne to take the Julius Baer pole position for this afternoon’s race.

Right in front of his Monaco Increase Management team and headquarters, the championship points leader powered his Porsche 99X Electric Gen3 machine around the 3.337 km layout in the final to grab his third pole position of the season and sixth in his career, while for MIM, it was the first ever pole position at their home race.

For lovers of statistics, it is also the first time a Porsche-powered car has been on pole position at Monaco in 38 years; the last time in fact was Alain Prost in the Formula 1 Monaco Grand Prix in 1986 at the wheel of the McLaren-Porsche MP4/2. On home ground, MIM CEO Salvatore Gandolfo was clearly also delighted at Pascal’s pole and thanked the entire Porsche team for their efforts.

Fourteenth in early Free Practice 1, Pascal then upped the pace throughout the morning, first taking third in FP2 with the first in an impressive series of 1m30s laps that took him into Qualifying Group A, where he qualified second behind one of his closest rivals Mitch Evans (Jaguar). Then in the Quarter-Final against Max Guenther (Maserati), the Semi-Final against Evans and the Final against Vandoorne, Pascal concluded every one of his one-lap sprint duels in under 1m30s to take the pole, a result that, given the tight and labyrinthine nature of the Monaco city track, puts him as a clear candidate for the win in this afternoon’s Round 8.