UpdateF1 >> Formula 1 News > Ferrari surprise front row

McLarens on row two

It had been expected we may see a surprise result in qualifying at Monaco, but when that surprise is a Ferrari front row it says a lot about expectations.

Another surprise was that the predicted rain chose to stay away, effectively putting paid to any giant killing performances from the Toro Rosso or Force India runners, all of who tried hard but ultimately failed to get past the first stage, and that they were joined by the clearly troubled Nelson Piquet in sitting out the rest of the hour was hardly astonishing news.

Granted, young Nelsinho set a best time only three tenths away from team mate Fernando Alonso – an effort among his best of the season – but it was not enough, and a ragged performance all-round will not help his cause at all.

Also out of sorts here was Nick Heidfeld, the German in the BMW having looked second class all weekend when compared to Robert Kubica in the other F1.08, and although he would sneak through to the second session – just ahead of Kazuki Nakajima in the Williams – neither he nor the Japanese driver would make it further than that.

They were joined by two of the usual suspects – Jenson Button and Rubens Barrichello in the Hondas – and Timo Glock in having a spare extra ten minutes on their hands, but none of these were helped by David Coulthard, who appeared to lose the back of the Red Bull and clip the barriers not far out of the tunnel, hence bringing out the yellow flags with thirty seconds remaining and – effectively – rendering everyone’s last effort useless.

The irony here was that DC – going well all session – had done enough to get through to the final shoot out, but a three wheeled RB4 was not going to be much use even for ten minutes, so he starts tenth.

The final ten minutes provided little in the way of excitement down the order – Mark Webber joins his team-mate on row five, Alonso and Jarno Trulli make up row four, and Robert Kubica and Nico Rosberg (a great effort by the Williams man) the third row – but the fight for the front four places was frantic.

Indeed, it was at the very last moment that Felipe Massa – a man who has been vocal in his dislike of this place in the past few days – stormed to pole position by a mere fraction from his team-mate Kimi Raikkonen, thus relegating the expected pole sitter Lewis Hamilton to third, with his own partner Heikki Kovalainen joining him in an all-McLaren row two.

The race, as usual, comes down to the fuel loads – if the McLarens are heavier they may have a chance – and with the added challenge of rain, for which there is a strong forecast during the race tomorrow.

Written: Sat, 24 May 2008 13:25:07