GP – Qualification: Massa on pole, Ferrari untouchable

Felipe Massa will start the Monaco Grand Prix in pole position tomorrow after fiercely battling with his Ferrari teammate, Kimi Räikkönen, who ultimately was three-hundredths of a second behind!

Ferrari is therefore omnipresent on the front row, even though McLaren is not far behind. Lewis Hamilton and Heikki Kovalainen will share the second row of the grid.

Hamilton and Kovalainen started Q1 with the leader’s cap as they were at the front, but Massa clocked a time of 1’15”100 in the last seconds. The Brazilian repeated his performance in Q2 where he remained unbeaten.

Räikkönen then seemed the most capable of securing pole position, which was within reach, relegating Hamilton to third place. That was without counting on Massa, who snatched the top spot from his teammate by the smallest possible margin during the final timed lap of Q3.

The Brazilian, winner in Turkey, was therefore the fastest in all three sessions.

The McLarens were faster in the first sector but lost ground to the Ferraris in the second sector, where the latter set a phenomenal pace.

Robert Kubica qualifies in fifth place, ahead of Nico Rosberg, who finishes Q2 in an excellent second place with a time of 1’15”287 thanks to suitable tires.

Fernando Alonso will start the race in seventh position after qualifying in the last moments for Q3 during his final lap of Q2. The Spaniard complained about a lack of grip with his Renault, but ultimately managed to qualify ahead of Jarno Trulli and Mark Webber.

David Coulthard is in the top ten even though he could not defend his chances due to a heavy crash at the end of Q2 on the seafront.

Several drivers were indeed hindered by this accident, namely the drivers behind the Scotsman. This includes Nick Heidfeld, who is 13th, the two Honda drivers, Kazuki Nakajima, and Timo Glock. All failed in Q2.

Rubens Barrichello finished 15th but is under investigation by the race stewards for blocking Giancarlo Fisichella in Q1.

Nelson Piquet does not improve in this new qualifying session as he will only start from 17th place. The Brazilian nearly hit the safety barriers at Portier.

The two Toro Rossos do not get past the Q1 stage. Sébastien Bourdais fails in 16th place, just one-tenth away from the 15th qualifying spot.

Sebastian Vettel and Giancarlo Fisichella will start from the last row as each received a five-place grid penalty for a gearbox change. They qualified in 18th and 20th positions, respectively.

Monaco GP Qualifying Results