Defending double drivers’ world champion Fernando Alonso of Spain on Saturday grabbed pole position for the Monaco Grand Prix.
The 25-year-old McLaren Mercedes-Benz driver, who won last year’s race for Renault, snatched the prime grid starting position with a late fast lap to outpace his teammate, 22-year-old British rookie Lewis Hamilton, the leader of the title race.
The pair will start alongside each other on the front row. It is Alonso’s first pole position of the season and the 16th of his career.
Ferrari’s Brazilian Felipe Massa was third fastest ahead of Italian Giancarlo Fisichella, who qualified fourth in a Renault. German born Nico Rosberg was fifth for Williams and will share the third row with Australian Mark Webber in a Red Bull.
German Nick Heidfeld was seventh ahead of his BMW Sauber teammate Pole Robert Kubica with the Honda pair of Brazilian Rubens Barrichello and Briton Jenson Button ninth and 10th.
After several days of fine, warm weather, Saturday was cold, wet and windy. The morning practice, topped by German Adrian Sutil in a Spyker, was run in rain-hit conditions and the afternoon qualifying — so decisive on this cramped street circuit — began in similarly unpredictable conditions.
The first part-session of qualifying was topped by clearly in-form drivers’ world championship leader Hamilton. The 22-year-old British rookie, in his McLaren Mercedes-Benz, showed no ill effects from his meeting with the barriers at Ste Devote corner on Thursday and drove with all the confidence expected of a driver who had won on all three of his previous starts in the Mediterranean principality in junior races.
Hamilton was fastest after the opening mini-session ahead of his McLaren teammate Alonso with Finn Kimi Raikkonen third for Ferrari. Italian Vitantonio Liuzzi of Toro Rosso was fourth ahead of Brazilian Felipe Massa in the second Ferrari.
At the other end of the time sheets, the bottom six were eliminated from progress and this means that Dutchman Christijan Albers, in a Spyker, and Japan’s Takuma Sato, in a Super Aguri, will start from the back row of the grid.
Ahead of them will be Sutil, who was unable to repeat his feat of the morning, and German Ralf Schumacher in a Toyota, with Briton Anthony Davidson, in the second Aguri car, and American Scott Speed, in a Torro Rosso.
The second mini-session saw Hamilton continue to set fast lap times, but an incident in the early stages appeared to upset Ferrari plans to mount a fight-back. In his first run, Raikkonen damaged the steering on his car and the front right wheel looked to be knocked askew.
This resulted in him coming to a halt at a bad angle across the circuit at the Rascasse hairpin and partly blocking the circuit ahead of teammate Massa, who was forced to take avoiding action to pass him. Raikkonen’s car was soon transported back to the pits for repairs.
Briton David Coulthard, on an ”out” lap in his Red Bull, appeared to slow the desperate Finn Heikki Kovalainen in a Renault as the contest became increasingly frantic in the second period.
The mini-session ended with Alonso this time on top with a 1:15,431 ahead of Hamilton, Poland’s Robert Kubica and his BMW Sauber teammate German Nick Heidfeld. Massa was fifth and Raikkonen, after his problems, left down in 16th place and out of the running.
This means that the Finn is destined to start from the eighth row of the grid alongside compatriot Kovalainen, with another former Monaco winner Jarno Trulli of Italy ahead of them for Toyota alongside Liuzzi.
The other two men ousted were Briton Jenson Button in his Honda and Austrian Alex Wurz in his Williams. They qualified on the sixth row, but like the others eliminated in the second session were to find their fortunes altered.
An announcement by the stewards at the end of the second mini-session made clear that Coulthard was punished for his misdemeanour and was not permitted to take part in the third mini-session.
He was left in 10th place, soon after amended to 16th — a decision that meant everyone else was shuffled up a place and that Button was back in the action in the final session. — Sapa-AFP