2011 Monaco Grand Prix - Qualifying

Sebastian Vettel took pole position at the 2011 Monaco Grand Prix, however, his lap was overshadowed by an awful crash by Sergio Perez.

Qualifying started with little drama. Before Q1 had started, people were talking about the slower teams possibly holding up the faster teams. There was also talk about Nico Rosberg not even making it into Q2. He had a big off in FP3, after the exit of the tunnel. However, with the Mercedes mechanics working at double time, they managed to get Nico's car together and safely into Q2. Their was less tension in the remainder of Q1, with the seven grid slots being taken by the two HRTs, two Virgins, Jaime Alguersuari's Toro Rosso, and the two Lotus. Heikki and Jarno both, for a second Grand Prix in succession, out qualifying a midfield team.

In Q2, all attention was obviously was on 10th place. The Red Bulls, McLarens, Ferraris and Mercedes had put in a good enough time to get into Q3, so the last two places seemed to be anyone guess. Renault underperformed coming 11th and 16th, with Petrov again outqualifying Heidfeld. The Force India's again had poor qualifying pace, finishing 14th and 15th. Also dropping out of Q2 was Kamui Kobayashi, Sebastian Buemi and Rubens Barrichello. This meant Sergio Perez and Pastor Maldonado (for a second race in a row) made it into the final qualifying session.

Q3 started with most cars staying in the pits, intending to do just one flying lap. Of the driver's who went out first, Sebastian Vettel got preliminary pole, ahead of Jenson Button and Mark Webber. With about four minutes to go, everyone came out to either improve their time, or making their only flying lap count. With two and a half minutes left, Sergio Perez was exiting the tunnel, taking a different line. As he pulled himself onto the racing line, he caught a small bump on the road which span his car round into the barriers. His car, then out of Sergio's control, skipped the chicane, and went sideways into a barrier on the exit of the nouvelle chicane, at turn 11. The session had to be red flagged, so with 2 minutes 26 seconds remaining, the flags were out, and the remaining nine cars re-entered the pits.

Marshalls and medics spent nearly 45 minutes helping Perez out of the car, and into the back of the ambulance. At the time of writing, Sergio is said to not be in a serious condition, and has been talking to the medics. It is unlikely that Sergio will be racing tomorrow, but all of F1 will be wishing him the best, and will hope to see him at the Canadian Grand Prix in two weeks time.

When Sergio was left in the back of the ambulance, Q3 did eventually resume, however only Nico Rosberg was able to improve on his time, and Lewis was the best of the one-flying-lappers, ending up in seventh. This ensured that Sebastian Vettel took pole at the Monaco GP, making it the sixth Red Bull podium out of six races of 2011. Button finished second, with Webber third, and Fernando Alonso in fourth.

Grid For Tomorrows Race
Pos - Driver - Team - Rank
1 - Sebastian Vettel - Red Bull - 1
2 - Jenson Button - McLaren - 5
3 - Mark Webber - Red Bull - 2
4 - Fernando Alonso - Ferrari - 4
5 - Michael Schumacher - Mercedes - 13
6 - Felipe Massa - Ferrari - 6
7 - Lewis Hamilton - McLaren - 3
8 - Nico Rosberg - Mercedes - 7
9 - Pastor Maldonado - Williams - 34
10 - Sergio Perez - Sauber - 34
11 - Vitaly Petrov - Renault - 16
12 - Rubens Barrichello - Williams - 8
13 - Kamui Kobayashi - Sauber - 18
14 - Paul Di Resta - Force India - 28
15 - Adrian Sutil - Force India - 10
16 - Nick Heidfeld - Renault - 11
17 - Sebastian Buemi - Toro Rosso - 17
18 - Heikki Kovalainen - Lotus - 14
19 - Jarno Trulli - Lotus - 15
20 - Jaime Alguersuari - Toro Rosso - 20
21 - Timo Glock - Virgin - 19
22 - Jerome D'Ambrosio - Virgin - 36

23* - Narain Karthikeyan - HRT - 39
24* - Vitantonio Liuzzi - HRT - 22
(* Both HRT cars failed to put in a lap, so it us up to the FIA if they can enter tomorrows race)