Quali
Red Bull’s Six Flags Adventure
Getty Images
In the glitz and glamour capital of Formula 1 Australian Mark Webber snatched pole from Pole Robert Kubica, giving the Milton Keynes, England based Austrian team clean sweep of the six pole positions so far in the 2010 F1 Championship.
Webber will be looking for his second win of the season after a dominating performance in Spain last Sunday. The last Australian to win in Monte-Carlo was Jack Brabham; his maiden Grand Prix win came in the 1959 street festival driving a Cooper.
Webber’s pole winning time was 1:15.035 against Kubica’s 1:15.045
Rumors continue to mount the talented Pole is headed to the Red zone, replacing Felipe Massa next season at Ferrari.
The second Red Bull of “Baby Schumi” Sebastian Vettel is on second row ahead of fourth place qualifier Massa, the lone Ferrari in qualifying after Alonso’s scrape with the wall in final practice.
On row three is Lewis Hamilton, McLaren’s 2008 World Champion, and looking for his first success of the season. Next to him is Nico Rosberg in the Mercedes, and looking for his maiden win in his home town, the German has resided in Monte-Carlo from an early age. Father Keke won the Monaco Grand Prix in 1983.
Michael Schumacher, the all time leader in Grand Prix wins and championships, shares row four with current world champion and points leader, Jenson Button.
The inaugural Monaco Grand Prix was round two in the 1950 World Championship and was won by the Argentine legend Juan Manuel Fangio in his Alfa-Romeo.
Supporting acts
GP2 feature race was won by Mexican Sergio Perez and Belgian Jerome D’Ambrosio waffled his way to victory in the sprint race.
World Series by Renault event takes place on Sunday. Another Aussie, Daniel Ricciardo, will start from pole. American Alexander Rossi starts from inside of row three.
— Nasir Hameed
Racing and Rascasse regards from California.
Mark Webber:
“It’s fantastic to be on pole and the team has done a very, very good job, Pole at every race, it’s very good for us and the team and Renault. It is a good result for the team so we have to capitalise tomorrow.
“We know someone had misfortune today, we saw Fernando, and we have to capitalise tomorrow.”
Robert Kubica:
“If the same car is 1.5 seconds quicker in Barcelona there is no reason why we should qualify in front of them, I was surprised by the pace in practice but miracles don’t happen in F1. Normally when you are very close there is a bit of upset but we have to be realistic, the team has done a great job.”
Generally the characteristic of the car is similar to this morning, this morning I felt the car was a bit better with changes more for the race, I was scared with a lot of fuel we would have a lot of bottoming, we raised the car a bit so a bit of disadvantage for qualifying but for the race it should be better.
Of course in Monaco the race is a bit different, it is not about race pace but bringing car home, pitting at the right moment, getting out of pitstop without traffic. The race pace helps but even if you are one second quicker it doesn’t matter, you have to pit at the right moment, and get out ahead of everybody. That is how it works in Monaco.”
Fernando Alonso:
“These things happen and you can’t do anything about it,” Alonso said. “Now let’s hope Felipe can have a good qualifying and let’s see what the positions are for tomorrow thinking about a possible comeback.
We’ll see. It’s difficult to start from last place in Monaco but it’s a long race and in 2006 Schumacher started last and finished in fifth so tomorrow the goal is to score some points. We’ll see if we are that lucky.”
Pos Driver Team Q1 Q2 Q3 1. Webber Red Bull-Renault 1:15.035 1:14.462 1:13.826 2. Kubica Renault 1:15.045 1:14.549 1:14.120 3. Vettel Red Bull-Renault 1:15.110 1:14.568 1:14.227 4. Massa Ferrari 1:14.757 1:14.405 1:14.283 5. Hamilton McLaren-Mercedes 1:15.676 1:14.527 1:14.432 6. Rosberg Mercedes 1:15.188 1:14.375 1:14.544 7. Schumacher Mercedes 1:15.649 1:14.691 1:14.590 8. Button McLaren-Mercedes 1:15.623 1:15.150 1:14.637 9. Barrichello Williams-Cosworth 1:15.590 1:15.083 1:14.901 10. Liuzzi Force India-Mercedes 1:15.397 1:15:061 1:15.170 11. Hulkenberg Williams-Cosworth 1:16.030 1:15.317 12. Sutil Force India-Mercedes 1:15.445 1:15.318 13. Buemi Toro Rosso-Ferrari 1:15.961 1:15.413 14. Petrov Renault 1:15.482 1:15.576 15. de la Rosa Sauber-Ferrari 1:15.908 1:15.692 16. Kobayashi Sauber-Ferrari 1:16.175 1:15.992 17. Alguersuari Toro Rosso-Ferrari 1:16.021 1:16.176 18. Kovalainen Lotus-Cosworth 1:17.094 19. Trulli Lotus-Cosworth 1:17.134 20. Glock Virgin-Cosworth 1:17.377 21. di Grassi Virgin-Cosworth 1:17.864 22. Senna HRT-Cosworth 1:18.509 23. Chandhok HRT-Cosworth 1:19.559 24. Alonso Ferrari No time