Michael Schumacher claimed his first pole position since his return to Formula One but because of his five place grid penalty for driving into the back of Bruno Senna in Spain; the German will start from sixth place on the grid. Schumacher’s penalty promotes Red Bull’s Mark Webber upto pole position alongside the German’s Mercedes team mate Nico Rosberg. While Lewis Hamilton starts third right behind Webber; I would suspect that Hamilton fancies his chances given Webber’s history of poor starts; but it’s a short run down to turn one, so Webber may survive past turn one!
Lotus’ Romain Grosjean will start from fourth place alongside Hamilton with Ferrari’s Fernando Alonso starting in fifth alongside Schumacher on the third row. The second Ferrari of Felipe Massa starts in seventh place, which I believe is his best starting position this season ahead of the second Lotus’ of Kimi Raikkonen on the fourth row. The fifth row was made up of two Germans; Red Bull’s Sebastian Vettel in ninth and Force India’s Nico Hulkenberg in 10th, both promoted one place because of Pastor Maldonado’s 10 place grid penalty for his thuggish antics in free practice 3, when he deliberately sideswiped Sergio Perez’ Sauber, losing 10 places is getting off lightly!
Jenson Button could only manage 13th place, being knocked out in Q2, he simply wasn’t fast enough, there really is no excuse when his team mate qualified nine places higher, but like the last race, Button benefits from being promoted a place due to someone else’s penalty! Both Paul di Resta and Kamui Kobayashi outqualified the McLaren, Button is really struggling to come to grips with this years tyres, as a Jenson Button fan, I find his performances this year very disappointing, with the exception of his win in Australia and his second place finish in China! I have been defending JB tooth and nail but it’s becoming harder by the race to defend his performances!
Both Sauber’s hit the armco in Q1 with differing results, Perez seemed to have some sort of steering issue which pitched him headlong into the barrier and out of qualifying. Kobayashi clunked the barrier but lived to fight another day, although he was still knocked out in Q2, could the brush with the barrier have affected his Q2 performance? probably not, the Sauber isn’t so quick around Monaco, but with Kobayashi’s ability to overtake into tight hairpins, I expect some points from his 11th place starting position! Toro Rosso’s Jean-Eric Vergne also had a brush with the barrier coming out of the tunnel, losing the rear end of the car, pitching him into the barrier, ripping off his front wing, Massa narrowly avoided the STR as he approached the final corners!
