Mark Webber produced an astonishing flying lap in the closing seconds of yesterday’s hotly contested qualifying session to maintain Red Bull’s supremacy in speed this season and take pole position for today’s Monaco Grand Prix.
The 33-year-old Australian, who took pole last weekend on his way to winning the Spanish Grand Prix and is many observers tip as a strong contender to lift the drivers world title this year, clocked the only sub 1 minute, 14 seconds lap so far this weekend.
He recorded a best time of 1 minute, 13.826 seconds, a virtuous effort that extended the Red Bull team’s run of poles this year to six out of six races. It brought Webber his fourth career pole after he had out-paced nearest rival Pole Robert Kubica in a Renault by 0.3 seconds.
It is the first time that the popular Australian has delivered back-to-back pole positions. His Red Bull teammate German Sebastian Vettel was third-fastest, ahead of Brazilian Felipe Massa of Ferrari, Briton Lewis Hamilton of McLaren and German Nico Rosberg in a Mercedes.
The seven-time champion German Michael Schumacher was seventh in the second Mercedes, ahead of defending champion and current series leader Briton Jenson Button in the second McLaren, with Brazilian veteran Rubens Barrichello ninth for Williams and Italian Vitantonio Liuzzi of Force India an excellent 10th.
The opening session Q1 saw the removal of the usual suspects, the six drivers from the three new teams, and none of the widely predicted trouble associated with 24 cars running together on track looking for a fast-timed lap.
At least this time they were in good company with the 24th place on the grid — in the pit lane in fact — reserved for Fernando Alonso of Ferrari following his big crash in practice.
Indian Karun Chandhok, who was slowest for the struggling Hispania team, one place behind his teammate Brazilian Bruno Senna, said he had had a frustrating session.
“That was very frustrating, we are a second behind where we think we should be,” he said.
The Virgins of Timo Glock and Lucas di Grassi were sandwiched between the other two teams.
Q2 then saw the elimination of German rookie Nico Hulkenberg, but with a very creditable 11th place on the grid, ahead of compatriot Adrian Sutil of Force India, Swiss Sebastien Buemi of Toro Rosso, Russian Vitaly Petrov of Renault, Spaniard Pedro de la Rosa of Sauber, his teammate Japanese Kamui Kobayashi, and Spaniard Jaime Alguersuari of Toro Rosso, who was 17th.
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