Monaco GP – Qualifying: Vettel on pole, huge crash for Perez

The first turning point of this qualifying session in Monaco had already occurred in the morning, with a major accident involving Nico Rosberg who fortunately came out unscathed, even though the driver had delivered strong performances on Thursday.

Q1: Jérôme d’Ambrosio and Michael Schumacher are the first to go out, followed by Vitaly Petrov. The Russian sets an initial time of 1:18:112 ahead of the German and logically ahead of the Belgian from Virgin Racing. They are then joined by almost the entire field except for Nico Rosberg and the two HRT drivers. Lewis Hamilton takes the lead in the session before being surpassed by his teammate Jenson Button, who sets the first time of the session below 1’16: 1:15:969.

The reigning world champion, Sebastian Vettel, then sets the second fastest time before taking the lead. The McLaren drivers and the Red Bull driver engage in a fierce battle for first place, and are the only three drivers in the 1’15 range. Against all odds, Nico Rosberg manages to join the session and immediately opts for the super-soft tires, setting the 5th fastest time right away. In the last ten minutes, the mid-field teams switch to the super-soft tires, gradually improving their times. Sergio Perez pushes hard with his Sauber, while Jaime Alguersuari hits the back of one of the two C30s.

The Spaniard therefore returns to the pits and ultimately remains behind the two Team Lotus drivers who are eliminated at the end of Q1.

Eliminated in Q1: Kovalainen, Trulli, Alguersuari, Glock, D’Ambrosio, Karthikeyan, and Liuzzi.

Q2: The drivers quickly set off at the start of the session, as always in Monaco, and it’s Michael Schumacher who sets the fastest time at the start of the session with the super soft tires, at 1:15.850 before Mark Webber sets a time of 1:14.996. But they are quickly displaced by other drivers who have already impressed since the beginning of the weekend, with Sebastian Vettel wedged between the two McLarens, all three ahead of Fernando Alonso. The Lotus Renault GP drivers are in real trouble with their cars, which are not as competitive as initially expected. Vitaly Petrov seems to be getting the better of Nick Heidfeld, taking a lot of risks to clock a top 10 time four minutes before the end of the session. The surprise of the session comes from Sergio Perez, who pushes very hard to set a time between the two Mercedes.

The last minute sees the struggle of a few drivers for the passage to Q3, but none of them improve. Both LRGPs are therefore eliminated at the end of this session, while the three remaining rookies have outpaced their teammates, with Sergio Perez and Pastor Maldonado qualifying for Q3. Lewis Hamilton and Sebastian Vettel are separated by only 2 thousandths.

Eliminated in Q2: Petrov, Barrichello, Kobayashi, Di Resta, Sutil, Heidfeld, and Buemi.

Q3: 6 drivers take to the track immediately at the start of the session, with Michael Schumacher first clocking 1:15.020 before being surpassed by Felipe Massa and Jenson Button, the Briton completing a lap in 1:13.997!

But Sebastian Vettel sets an extremely fast lap at 1:13.556, beating the best lap from 2010 by his teammate Mark Webber, which was 1:13.826, before heading back to the pits. And it’s Michael Schumacher who attacks extremely hard with DRS and KERS activated, setting a very good time, before Sergio Perez crashes at the same spot as Nico Rosberg did this morning. The Sauber exited the tunnel very quickly and hit the small wall in front, fortunately laterally! The driver does not exit his car and seems unconscious. The red flag is out as the medical team rushes to the C30. The medical team then places a sheet over his car to shield it from the cameras, and eventually evacuates the driver by ambulance, rather than helicopter, which is reassuring. After a few minutes, we learn that Sergio Perez is conscious and speaking, while the marshals repair the section of the track.

We can still congratulate these men who remain the best stewards in the world, who arrived just seconds after the accident.

The drivers set off again but only Lewis Hamilton climbs to 7th place ahead of Nico Rosberg in a single lap, a difficult feat in Monaco.

Sebastian Vettel thus signs his twentieth pole position, equaling Fernando Alonso’s score, and Jenson Button will accompany him on the front row.