Schumacher fastest but Webber on pole

F1 Grand Prix, GP Monaco, Monte Carlo Circuit

Michael Schumacher went fastest in qualifying around the streets of Monaco. A penalty for a collision in the Spanish GP will put him back 5 places though, handing the actual pole position to Red Bull's Mark Webber. Nico Rosberg will start from 2nd, ahead of Lewis Hamilton and Romain Grosjean.

Jean Eric Vergne is the first man on track in Monaco under very sunny skies. Once he's halfway his flying lap, numerous cars come out on track one behind the other.

3 minutes into the session first incident is already there, as De La Rosa drives very slowly through the final sector to find some space ahead of him for his flying lap. Timo Glock however came up behind him and saw how own lap ruined completely in the final turn.

Another minute later, Pérez is in the barriers as he went wide in the chicane at the swimming pool. It looks like he lost the steering on his left front tyre after going over the inner kerb. He was consequently unable to steer right in the second part of the corner. The result was a bug shunt and the left rear wheel broken off.

The red flag was of course brought out as Pérez had to stop alongside the track. Fernando Alonso at the time is on of the timesheet with a 1:17.128.

After 4 minutes of engine silence, the cars are unleashed again, with Rosberg in front of the queue. He goes third fastest while Michael Schumacher goes fastest ten seconds later. The next flyer however is much better for Rosberg, going fastest with a 1:15.900, yet again topped by Schumacher a few seconds later.

Felipe Massa meanwhile goes third fastest, continuing the display of his excellent form here at Monte Carlo.

While Grosjean goes into second place on the options, his teammate Raikkonen is in trouble and abandons his lap, going for a set of super softs to make sure he improves from his current 17th position.

By then, Hulkenberg already went fastest as he was already fitted with a set of super softs.

Vettel is somewhat in the same situation as Raikkonen, although by the end of the session they both made it through. Eliminated therefore are Raikkonen, Petrov, Glock, De La Rosa, Pic, Karthikeyan and of course Pérez who didn't set a time.

In Q2 many drivers come out to set a time early on, often immediately on the softer tyres.

5 minutes into the session, Vergne loses the car over the bump out of the tunnel and hits the barriers. Although that broke the right rear suspension and pushed the front wing under the car, Jean-Eric still made it into the pitlane despite spreading some debris over the track. Felipe Massa for one just nearly managed to avoid a collision with Vergne as the Ferrari driver himself was just passing Ricciardo at La Piscine.

3 minutes from the end, Rosberg has moved into first, ahead of Webber, Hamilton, Alonso, Maldonado, Schumacher, Hulkenberg, Button, Grosjean and Vettel. Seconds later Massa puts himself on top of the sheet.

One minute later that means Button is only 11th, Grosjean 12th and Raikkonen 14th.

At the finish flag, Raikkonen just managed to get himself into P10 while Button was unable to improve and is out. Eliminated are therefore Hulkenberg in 11th place, ahead of Kobayashi, Button, Senna, Di Resta, Ricciardo and Vergne.

Just like the earlier parts of qualifying, Q3 kicks off with immediate track action. Rosberg once again is the first out on track. Maldonado is behind him and set the first competitive time of the session as Rosberg backed out of his first attempt after a difficult first half lap. Grosjean however does even better and tops Maldonado by a massive 6 tenths, only to see Rosberg go faster again on his next lap.

The time differences are extremely tiny though as Rosberg, Grosjean and Webber are only 0.116s apart.

Alonso meanwhile set out most of the session until he decided to finally come out with only 3 minutes left on the clock.

As the clock comes to a halt, Webber crosses the finish line with the very fastest time, topping Rosberg by one tenth. He will start from pole, but Michael Schumacher still managed to go even faster, but due to a penalty at the Spanish GP, he will have to start from 5th.