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Jenson Button once again got pole position this season at Monaco Grand Prix. Despite his struggle in early stages of Qualify today he did an exceptional lap at dying moments of Q3 and secured pole position. Raikkonen was second just 0.025 seconds behind Button despite he was the fastest man in Q2 with almost six tenths quicker than last years best Q2 time. Barrichello from Brawn was third ahead of Vettel in fourth who didn’t seem to be on pace this week. Massa was fifth who crashed his car at the beginning of Q1 but was lucky enough to continue. Rosberg was sixth, Kovalainen seventh and Webber was eight before tomorrow’s race.
The real drama was Hamilton’s crash at first session after posting the best first sector time. Hamilton seemed very strong all week here and he could deliver a very strong performance today if he didn’t crash. Another big surprise was seeing both cars of teams BMW and Toyota to be knocked out in Q1 while Force India and Torro Rosso drivers were in top 15. Car weights are yet to be published by FIA, but most of the time strategy is more important at this circuit than the raw speed.
Here are the full results of Qualification today;
| Pos | No | Driver | Team | Q1 | Q2 | Q3 | Laps |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 22 | Jenson Button | Brawn-Mercedes | 1:15.210 | 1:15.016 | 1:14.902 | 25 |
| 2 | 4 | Kimi Räikkönen | Ferrari | 1:15.746 | 1:14.514 | 1:14.927 | 31 |
| 3 | 23 | Rubens Barrichello | Brawn-Mercedes | 1:15.425 | 1:14.829 | 1:15.077 | 26 |
| 4 | 15 | Sebastian Vettel | RBR-Renault | 1:15.915 | 1:14.879 | 1:15.271 | 27 |
| 5 | 3 | Felipe Massa | Ferrari | 1:15.340 | 1:15.001 | 1:15.437 | 28 |
| 6 | 16 | Nico Rosberg | Williams-Toyota | 1:15.094 | 1:14.846 | 1:15.455 | 23 |
| 7 | 2 | Heikki Kovalainen | McLaren-Mercedes | 1:15.495 | 1:14.809 | 1:15.516 | 24 |
| 8 | 14 | Mark Webber | RBR-Renault | 1:15.260 | 1:14.825 | 1:15.653 | 20 |
| 9 | 7 | Fernando Alonso | Renault | 1:15.898 | 1:15.200 | 1:16.009 | 24 |
| 10 | 17 | Kazuki Nakajima | Williams-Toyota | 1:15.930 | 1:15.579 | 1:17.344 | 28 |
| 11 | 12 | Sebastien Buemi | STR-Ferrari | 1:15.834 | 1:15.833 | 17 | |
| 12 | 8 | Nelsinho Piquet | Renault | 1:16.013 | 1:15.837 | 22 | |
| 13 | 21 | Giancarlo Fisichella | Force India-Mercedes | 1:16.063 | 1:16.146 | 18 | |
| 14 | 11 | Sebastien Bourdais | STR-Ferrari | 1:16.120 | 1:16.281 | 19 | |
| 15 | 20 | Adrian Sutil | Force India-Mercedes | 1:16.248 | 1:16.545 | 19 | |
| 16 | 1 | Lewis Hamilton | McLaren-Mercedes | 1:16.264 | 4 | ||
| 17 | 6 | Nick Heidfeld | BMW Sauber | 1:16.264 | 11 | ||
| 18 | 5 | Robert Kubica | BMW Sauber | 1:16.405 | 12 | ||
| 19 | 9 | Jarno Trulli | Toyota | 1:16.548 | 11 | ||
| 20 | 10 | Timo Glock | Toyota | 1:16.788 | 12 |
It seems Ferrari is really back to the fighting. That’s really exciting.
But BMW and Toyota really disappointed me. Even Toro Rosso and Force India was better. How ridicilous
BMW is in real trouble. Their last chance is next grand prix where they will introduce their new double decker diffuser, but I’m afraid it will be too late to fight for championship.
Ferrari and McLaren showed everybody that it’s possible to develop a bad car during the season. Raikkonen just missed pole and Hamilton would most probably be on first row if he hadn’t crashed at Q1.