Webber steals pole with mega lap at Monaco

Mark Webber once again showed, at Monaco this time, why he is considered the best F1 qualifier of his generation

May.15 (www.yallaf1.com) Mark Webber stole pole position with a scintillating lap of 1 minute 13.826 seconds, around the streets of Monaco to claim pole position for Sunday’s Grand Prix.

Deja vu for Mark Webber as he takes his second pole position in a week

Before the start of qualifying at the principality you would not have put much money on the Australian repeating his Spanish qualifying feat of seven days ago. On the day though the signs emerged early on as the Red Bull driver went second best in Q1 and third best in Q2, followed by two mega laps which his rivals could not answer to. His best 0.294 seconds than his closest rival.

In fact going into the final Q3 shootout “wise” bets would have been on Felipe Massa (Ferrari), Lewis Hamilton (McLaren) or Robert Kubica (Renault) doing the business.

But it was not to be as Webber simply rose to the occasion to head home a Renault powered 1-2-3 as Kubica ended second fastest ahead of Red Bull’s Sebastian Vettel. Hence the theory that the Adrian Newey penned RB6’s were not good for slow circuits was well and truly trashed. Moanco makes it six out of six poles for the Red Bull’s this year.

Pole sitter Mark Webber with Sebastian Vettel (third) Red Bull Racing and Robert Kubica (second) in parc ferme

Red Bull boss Christian Horner told BBC: “Kubica has been on fire all weekend. He’s very, very quick round here. But Mark timed his run brilliantly. It’s all about those last two laps and he did two laps that were good enough for pole. His confidence is high and with Seb up there we’re starting in the right place tomorrow.”

Massa was fourth fastest after a torrid day for Ferrari following Fernando Alonso’s practice accident a couple of hours earlier. The Spaniard’s car was too damaged to be repaired for the race and thus spent the session, forlornly, watching the action on monitors in the Ferrari pit as mechanics attended to his mangled F10.

Fastest of the Mercedes powered brigade was Lewis Hamilton (McLaren Mercedes) who must have fancied his chances of pole early on, but will instead head up row three in fifth.

Robert Kubica will start the race from second place on the grid

Nico Rosberg (Mercedes GP) will start sixth on the grid, again ahead of Michael Schumacher who will start from seventh. Rosberg topped the timing screens after Q2 and he too would have expected to be closer to the front.

Clearly at odds with his car’s handling all weekend has been Jenson Button (McLaren Mercedes) who ended eighth fastest.

Rubens Barrichello (Williams) was once again by the far the best of the Cosworth powered drivers and will start from ninth on the grid with Vitantonio Liuzzi (Force India) beside him in tenth.

Q1: No big surprises

Heikki Kovalainen best of the new team drivers again

Predictions of doom, gloom and traffic, that even spawned the idea to split the Q1 session, proved to be unfounded. And once again none of the new team drivers made it through to Q2, on a circuit that arguably offered them their best chance to do so.

Best of the bunch were the two Lotus’ with Heikki Kovalainen 18th best, becoming the first team mate of Jarno Trulli, since 1997, to out qualify the Italian at the principality. Trulli was 19th.

Trulli said afterwards, “It was difficult for me because I lost a lot of time, my final set-up changes were just before the session but we are much closer than expected to the cars in front so that is a good sign.”

Timo Glock was the quicker of the Virgin Racing boys in 20th with Lucas di Grassi in 21st.

Bruno Senna, who is unhappy with the condition of his chassis, was fastest of the two Hispania rookies, a second faster than team mate Karun Chandhok. They were 22nd and 23rd respectively.

Chandhok summed up his session, “That was very frustrating, we are a second behind where we think we should be, which is bad even by our standards. We lost grip. It’s a bit like the problem Bruno had on Thursday, a mysterious lack of grip, and it’s not good.”

Not setting a time, due to the state of damage to his shunted F10 chassis, and destined to start the race from the pit lane is Alonso. Expect fireworks or tears on race day…

At the top of the timing screens most of the big guns had a stint at the top, at the end of the first 20 minutes it was Massa quickest followed by Webber, Kubica, Vettel, Rosberg, Liuzzi, Sutil, Petrov, Barrichello, Button, Schumacher and Hamilton.

Q2: Sutil drops out as Button scrapes through
All weekend Adrian Sutil had the better of his Force India team mate Liuzzi, but when it mattered Sutil could only manage the 12th best lap time and failed to make it into Q3 while Liuzzi got in with the eighth quickest time.

Nico Hulkenberg (Williams) could only manage 11th best lap time again down on team mate Barrichello who made it into Q3.

Sebastian Buemi (Toro Rosso) looked capable of a Q3 after a feisty free practice session earlier in the day. But the Swiss driver could only manage 13th best.

Renault’s Vitaly Petrov ended 14th fastest despite going off into the tyre barrier at Saint Devote.

The Sauber pair were up next with Pedro de la Rosa 15th and Kamui Kobayashi in 16th.

Jaime Alguersuari (Toro Rosso) was slowest of the 16 in the session and will start from 17th on the grid.

At the front Rosberg headed the timing sheets from Massa, Webber, Hamilton, Kubica, Vettel, Schumacher, Liuzzi, Barruchello and Button scraping through in tenth.

Qualifying – 15 May 2010