Dangerous Monaco

This weekend Formula One is in Monaco, the tightest track in the calender and arguably the most dangerous. This morning's practice session certainly proved its case as both Liuzzi and Rosberg suffered major crashes. Luckily for Rosberg he was able to participate in Q1 whereas Liuzzi was not and may suffer from the 107% rule. Liuzzi's teammate Karthikeyan was also unable to set a time in Q1 due to a rear suspension failure and could also be ruled out of tomorrow's race. The usual six plus one applied in Monaco although Toro Rosso's Alguersuari will start behind both Lotus' in twentieth place, depending on a steward's enquiry as Alguersuari contacted with Kobayashi during the session. The two Virgins will start behind Alguersuari with Glock ahead of D'Ambrosio and Kovalainen beat Trulli to eighteenth. It was looking to be a good session for McLaren as Hamilton went fastest.

Hamilton again went fastest in Q2 as both Force Indias and Renault cars were eliminated. Buemi rounded off a miserable qualifying for Toro Rosso and will start seventeenth, behind Heidfeld in sixteenth. The Force Indias will start side by side with Di Resta out-qualifying Sutil yet again. Kobayashi will start thirteenth again pending that possible steward's enquiry. Williams looked good in qualifying as Maldonado made it to Q3 for the second consecutive race and Barrichello will start twelfth with Petrov eleventh.

Monaco again proved why it is one of the most feared race tracks in the world. With two minutes and twenty-six seconds of Q3 remaining the session had to be red flagged. This was because Sergio Perez suffered a horrible crash; it was a carbon copy of Rosberg's in practice as Perez also lost control as he came out of the tunnel. He then crashed into the barrier before careering side-on into the pro-tech safety barrier whereas Rosberg had just missed it. There was a thirty eight minute delay as everyone sent their prayers to Sauber, Perez and his family. Fortunately, he was conscious and talking when paramedics got him out of the car and into the ambulance and, perhaps luckily, he suffered no broken bones, only concussion so may be able to participate in tomorrow's race where he would start tenth. Once the barrier had been put back in place the final minutes of qualifying resumed but Hamilton and Maldonado hadn't put a time in before the crash and suffered for it. Maldonado will start ninth and Hamilton seventh with Rosberg in between them. The Ferrari's looked improved again with Massa sixth and Alonso remaining fourth, Schumacher claims his best start by providing the meat in the Ferrari sandwich. Webber will start third from Button, meaning that Vettel claimed yet another Pole position but his first in Monaco and the German will be looking to win his first Monaco grand prix tomorrow.