Alonso grabs Monaco pole position

F1 Grand Prix, GP Monaco, Monte Carlo Circuit

McLaren proved to be the strongest team in the Monaco qualifying as Fernando Alonso took charge for tomorrow's Grand Prix. It was a closely fought battle with his teammate but eventually got the advantage. Felipe Massa is in third place with Ferrari while Giancarlo Fisichella is 4th, the best qualifying for his Renault F1 team this season.

In addition to the regular risks of the tight Monaco circuit during qualifying, there is a constant threat of rain during the session. As a result, while the track is dry, several drivers leave the pit to immediately secure a quick lap to avoid possible rain.

The bigger teams however choose to take their chances and proved to be right in their weather expectations. McLaren took charge of the first session with first Alonso and then Hamilton who drove multiple laps on the same set of tyres and consequently improved.

Although it appeared like Red Bull would have trouble to get into Q2. Final attempts proved that both Red Bull and Toro Rosso are well on form as Liuzzi is 4th, Coulthard 8th and Webber 9th. Worse off are Davidson in 17th place, followed by Speed - sharply contrasting his teammate, Sutil, Schumacher, Sato and Albers. The latter should really start to fear for his seat as he has consistently been slower than his rookie teammate this year.

Session two kicks off with Rosberg, but it is Raikkonen who wakes up everone with halting in the same corner as Michael Schumacher did last year. Different from that occasion, Kimi committed an error at 'La Piscine' and thereby broke the steering of his right front wheel. After 8 minutes of incredible work, the Ferrari mechanics realise time will be short and decide to not let Raikkonen leave again. Kimi will therefore start from 16th place on the Monaco GP grid.

Heikki Kovalainen is also having trouble to get into Q3 as on his first flying lap he is seriously hindered by David Coulthard. His second lap is consequently also ruined unfortunately. The knocked out drivers are Jenson Button, Wurz, Liuzzi, Trulli, Kovalainen and for sure Kimi Raikkonen.

Just after the start of Q3 is is announced that David Coulthard is not allowed to take part in the session because of blocking the Renault of Kovalainen. Button therefore can join Q3. The strategies proved to be very different among teams in the final session. Generally all drivers start with their flying laps earlier than in regular races in order to limit the risks of traffic.

At the end, Alonso grabs a fantastic pole ahead of his teammate. Massa puts Ferrari third while Fisichella gives Renault a fantastic 4th place on the grid.