Sergio Perez's massive accident in qualifying for the Monaco GP overshadowed Sebastian Vettel's first Monaco pole position.
Q3 was halted for almost 40 minutes after Perez suffered a huge accident, hitting the dividing barrier at the Nouvelle Chicane after losing control of his car over the bumps at the exit to the tunnel.
The medical staff and marshals were quickly on hand to assist the Sauber driver, who was taken directly to the local hospital in an ambulance. he was conscious and talking.
With the session resuming with just three minutes left on the clock, many expected a mad flying lap dash for pole position. However, it wasn't to be.
Instead the session came to a low-key end with Vettel on pole thanks to his earlier 1:13.556.Jenson Button will join him on the front row, having qualified ahead of Mark Webber and Fernando Alonso.
Qualifying Report - Q1
Qualifying took place in a sunny Monaco with an ambient temperature of 23C and the track up at 45C. Nico Rosberg's Mercedes was still being worked on after his practice accident this morning at the Nouvelle Chicane, but Tonio Liuzzi's HRT was beyond feasible repair after losing the rear end against the barriers at Ste Devote.
Vitaly Petrov set the first meaningful P1 time at 1:18.112, before Jenson Button lowered it to 1:17.059. Most of the front runners had strapped on a set of the Soft tyres and were putting in multiple laps and reducing their times as they lapped.
Lewis Hamilton reduced it to 1:16.321 before Jenson took it down to 1:15.930. Sebastian Vettel joined in the fun with a 1:15.606, Button then took it back with a 1:15.397, and then Lewis trumped that with a 1:15.207.
With eight minutes of the session left Nico Rosberg stunned the pitlane by jumping into his newly rebuilt car, not having completed a single fast lap on the Saturday and put his car up into P5.
Rosberg had been the first to go onto the red-walled SuperSoft tyres and Sebastian Buemi was soon on them, too. This took his Toro Rosso up from P.20 on the grid to P7 and started the cascade of other midfield runners going onto the faster tyre. Buemi had gained 1.4 seconds on the Option tyre.
With only four and a half minutes left of the session Mark Webber was as low as P.11, but then - still on the Soft tyre - moved himself up to P.7. Perez jumped up to P6 courtesy of the SuperSoft.
Jaime Alguersuari was surprised by Kamui Kobayashi backing up at the Rascasse and simply ran into the back of the Sauber and retreated to the pitlane. (and soon the stewards' office)
Going into the final three minutes with Alguersuari firmly back in P.19 the danger zone was: 15.Barrichello, 16.Kobayashi, 17.Trulli, 18.Di Resta, 19.Alguersuari, 20.Kovalainen, 21.Glock, 22.D'Ambrosio. Neither of the HRTs had made it out with Karthikeyan suffering a last minute suspension failure.
Paul Di Resta jumped up to P.16 pushing Jarno Trulli into P.18. Kobayashi improved to P13. At the last minute Heikki Kovalainen improved but cold only manage P.18. So at the end of the session out went: 18.Kovalainen, 19.Trulli, 20.Alguersuari, 21.Glock, 22.D'Ambrosio.
What was most revealing from the session was how much pace McLaren and Red Bull had over Ferrari, after Fernando Alonso had topped morning practice by almost half a second.
Qualifying 2
With the track less busy, Q2 was always going to be less frantic than Q1. The top teams knew that they would be running the red-walled SuperSofts right from the word go and both Red Bull and McLaren were soon out on track.
The morning practice session had shown that they could be run for multiple laps providing they were allowed to cool down between hot laps. Michael Schumacher took P1 with a 1:15.850, this was soon eclipsed by Mark Webber with a 1:14.996 and then throroughly sorted by Lewis Hamilton with a 1:14.275. Jenson Button went P2, then Alonso took P2, then Vettel took P2.
With four minutes of the session left the danger positions were: 8.Massa, 9.Barrichello, 10.Petrov, 11.Maldonado, 12.Perez, 13.Buemi, 14.Sutil, 15.DiResta, 16.Heidfeld, 17.Kobayashi.
Massa jumped up into P5, Heidfeld could only manage P13, Perez jumped up into P8, Schumacher inched his way forward to P9, Maldonado made it to P10 pushing his team-mate, Barrichello, into P11. Kobayashi could only manage P12, Sutil was never going to get near the top ten but improved his position to P.14 before, as ever, Paul DiResta went faster than him at the last moment.
So, as the dust settled, out went: 11.Petrov, 12.Barrichello, 13.Kobayashi, 14.DiResta, 15.Sutil, 16.Heidfeld, 17.Buemi.
Only two thousandths of a second separated Vettel and Hamilton
Qualifying 3
Q3 was shaping up to be a nail-biting affair with the Red Bull and McLarens equally matched for once, but at the start of the session Hamilton was only just getting into his car and while Jenson Button's car was out on track, the No.3 remained in the garage.
Michael Schumacher set provisional pole with a 1:15.020, Felipe Massa lowered it to 1:14.889 before Button annihilated it with a time faster than last year's pole - a 1:13.997. In response Mark Webber could only manage P2 and Alonso P3.
Vettel on a lap which looked on the very edge set the timing screens to purple with a 1:13.556. It looked unreachable, but just as he crossed the line Lewis Hamilton was emerging from the pitlane.
Unfortunately for Lewis, Felipe Massa was on the road in front of him on the McLaren driver's first hot lap and Massa, though getting out of the way, chose to do it at the last minute on the hill down to Massanet and all hope of a hot lap for Hamilton were gone with a 19.8 first sector compared to Vettel's 19.1 and Button's 19.2.
Hamilton gave up on the lap, which would never have counted anyway, because ahead of him at the Nouvelle Chicane, Sergio Perez had had the same kind of accident Rosberg endured in practice, his car snapping against the barriers under braking and then being launched across the Nouvelle Chicane until it hit the barrier dividing the track from the escape road. Rosberg had been lucky and clipped it a glancing blow earlier, Perez slammed into it side on.
The race was immediately red-flagged and the Medical Car dispatched to the scene. A conscious Perez was carefully extracted and taken off to the medical centre while the pitlane worried about the consequences. That same barrier had almost caused the death of Karl Wendlinger in a Sauber in 1994 and had subsequently been moved back. When Jenson Button hit it in a Honda, it should have been removed a lot further down the road.
With only 2.26 left (time for one hot lap) to run, the teams sat and waited and finally got the go ahead that running would commence at 15.35. To make sure of track position McLaren sent Lewis Hamilton out very early to wait at the end of pitlane, but the lap he got in suffered from colder-than-usual tyres and his lap time was only good enough for P.7.
Although the remainder of the field came out, their times were slower and nobody bothered finishing the lap they were on. Thus because of the wait and because of the anxiety over Perez, the end of the session was an anti-climactic affair. Michael Schumacher finished with his best qualifying of the season in P5. he had worked hard for it - a total of 29 qualifying laps in all.
Lewis Hamilton will struggle to win the race from P7 on the grid, but Sebastain Vettel has achieved another milestone in his career - a Monaco pole. With many of the front runners evenly matched and tyre wear a leap into the unknown, keeping P1 tomorrow might be a lot harder.
FH
Times
0 1. Sebastian Vettel Red Bull-Renault 1m13.556s
2. Jenson Button McLaren-Mercedes 1m13.997s + 0.441
3. Mark Webber Red Bull-Renault 1m14.019s + 0.463
4. Fernando Alonso Ferrari 1m14.483s + 0.927
5. Michael Schumacher Mercedes 1m14.682s + 1.126
6. Felipe Massa Ferrari 1m14.877s + 1.321
7. Lewis Hamilton McLaren-Mercedes 1m15.280s + 1.724
8. Nico Rosberg Mercedes 1m15.766s + 2.210
9. Pastor Maldonado Williams-Cosworth 1m16.528s + 2.972
10. Sergio Perez Sauber-Ferrari No time
11. Vitaly Petrov Renault 1m15.815s + 1.540
12. Rubens Barrichello Williams-Cosworth 1m15.826s + 1.551
13. Kamui Kobayashi Sauber-Ferrari 1m15.973s + 1.698
14. Paul di Resta Force India-Mercedes 1m16.118s + 1.843
15. Adrian Sutil Force India-Mercedes 1m16.121s + 1.846
16. Nick Heidfeld Renault 1m16.214s + 1.939
17. Sebastien Buemi Toro Rosso-Ferrari 1m16.300s + 2.025
18. Heikki Kovalainen Lotus-Renault 1m17.343s + 2.136
19. Jarno Trulli Lotus-Renault 1m17.381s + 2.174
20. Jaime Alguersuari Toro Rosso-Ferrari 1m17.820s + 2.613
21. Timo Glock Virgin-Cosworth 1m17.914s + 2.707
22. Jerome D'Ambrosio Virgin-Cosworth 1m18.736s + 3.529
23. Tonio Liuzzi HRT-Cosworth No time
24. Narain Karthikeyan HRT-Cosworth No time
