Micheal takes the pole

[F1fanaticBD]

Micheal Schumacher silences the critics, most possibly Mr. Fry to take on the pole position, though he will be relegated to 6th position, due to last weekends penalty, resulting Webber to starting from the pole, while along side Nico.

Finally Massa made it to the Q3, and almost ran side by side with his team-mate Alonso for the first time in this year.

Hamilton will start from the third place, Romain will start fron 4th, which may help him to be a race winner tomorrow. Though rain was expected in the qualifying, there were no sign of it, and still weather may play a significant role in tomorrows race.

Current world champion Vettel really struggled, with never on the contention to put any fastest lap, in any session of qualifying.


"
Michael Schumacher showed that his old Monegasque fire still burns by pipping Mark Webber for pole position here in Monaco on Saturday afternoon, but the Australian had the last laugh as the German had to take a five-place grid penalty for his indiscretion in Spain.

Webber had just redefined the ante in Q3 with 1m 14.381s in his Red Bull when Schumacher roared home in 1m 14.301s for Mercedes.

Behind them, Nico Rosberg underlined the speed of the silver arrows with 1m 14.448s, while Lewis Hamilton was fourth on 1m 14.583s for McLaren. Romain Grosjean, who has shown flashes of great speed all weekend, was fifth for Lotus on 1m 14.639s, ahead of the Ferraris of Fernando Alonso and Felipe Massa on 1m 14.948s and 1m 15.049s.

Schumacher’s penalty reshuffles the top six as Webber, Rosberg; Hamilton, Grosjean; Alonso, Schumacher.

Kimi Raikkonen was eighth in the second Lotus, on 1m 15.199s, and Williams’ Pastor Maldonado set the ninth-fastest time of 1m 15.245s as Sebastian Vettel struggled with his tyres throughout and never did a timed lap in the Red Bull.

Massa had a scare in Q2. Jean-Eric Vergne had stuffed the nose of his Toro Rosso under braking for the chicane, and was ambling back to the pits for repairs as the Brazilian came blasting through the first part of the Swimming Pool past Daniel Ricciardo and was then suddenly confronted by the Frenchman’s slow car. He just missed it, and shortly afterwards banged in a 1m 14.911s to head the session from Rosberg and Maldonado.

There was more drama at the end as Raikkonen just squeezed into Q3 at Nico Hulkenberg’s expense, leaving the German 11th on 1m 15.421s in the Force India from Sauber’s Kamui Kobayashi on 1m 15.508s and a very unhappy Jenson Button on 1m 15.536s as he struggled yet again with the tyres on his McLaren, then came Bruno Senna on 1m 15.709s for Williams, Paul di Resta for Force India on 1m 15.718s, Toro Rosso’s Ricciardo on 1m 15.878s and a crestfallen Vergne on 1m 16.885s.

Q1 wasn’t five minutes old when Sauber’s hopes took a dive for the second year in succession as Sergio Perez smacked into something hard. This time it was the wall on the exit to the first part of the Swimming Pool, which removed his C31’s left-rear wheel and sent him to Schumacher’s favourite parking spot at Rascasse. And from there to the back of the grid.

This was a tense session. Positions changed faster than you could blink, and as Hulkenberg set the pace with a super-soft run of 1m 15.418s for Force India, to head Kobayashi and Grosjean, both Vettel and Raikkonen had to resort to super softs to be sure of getting through, eventually finishing fourth and sixth either side of Schumacher.

Heikki Kovalainen and Vitaly Petrov put their Caterhams in their usual 18th and 19th slots, but the Finn was only fractions off getting into Q2 with 1m 16.538s as the Russian managed 1m 17.404s. Timo Glock got close to that for Marussia with 1m 17.947s, and Pedro de la Rosa’s HRT wasn’t at all far behind the German with 1m 18.096s. Charles Pic did 1m 18.476s in the other Marussia, and the final timed runner was Narain Karthikeyan on 1m 19.310s.

With Maldonado getting a 10-place grid penalty for a fracas with Perez in Saturday morning’s practice, the grid from ninth place downwards reshuffles as: Vettel, Hulkenberg; Kobayashi, Button; Senna, Di Resta; Ricciardo, Vergne; Kovalainen, Petrov; Maldonado, Glock; De la Rosa, Pic; Karthikeyan, Perez"

[From formula1.com]

[cosworth151]

Schumi will be back with Alonso. That should make for some interesting racing! 

[David]

Such a shame that he has a penalty. 

[lkjohnson1950]

Maybe we should have a side bet on how many cars go out at St. Devote.

[F1fanaticBD]

Maybe we should have a side bet on how many cars go out at St. Devote.

Maldonado staring from back, with a good car compare to the people around, and the mood he is in, I bet he will take out two along with him, making a four car pile-up in the St.Devote...

Wanna push that Lonny???

[lkjohnson1950]

I was thinking more along the lines of Alonso vs Schumacher. 2 cars out at the first turn.

[cosworth151]

And maybe a few innocent bystanders behind them, too. 

[lkjohnson1950]

Well, it was Michael, though I wouldn't give him the blame. And Grosjean out instantly, Kobi out a lap or two later with crash damage.

[Monty]

I would love to blame Schumacher but this time I have to admit it was just a racing incident. Grosjean had already been hit on the right and he either drove or was pushed left and the Mercedes was there with nowhere to go.

[F1fanaticBD]

You can't be serious Monty......

[lkjohnson1950]

I think everyone knows I am no fan of MS, but I have to agree with Monty on this one. Michael was bang up against the guardrail and Grosjean moved into him. I have heard that Grosjean was bumped by someone else and pushed into MS, but I didn't see it myself.

[Scott]

Yeah it didn't look like Grossjean was hit by anyone, he just didn't realize MS was there...just racing' to me.

[F1fanaticBD]

Funny thing is, I posted the topic as "Micheal got Pole" and no one even monty has not disagreed. So whether he started or not, whether its written in the book or not, MS is back with a bang, though the history books will people he is a retirement, but I guess for Ian and me, its a massive step towards the dream we share that Micheal will step in the top of the podium..

Hope to see you by our side Monty...

[Scott]

To be fair, Monty has a point.  MS is a cheat.  He's done it plenty of times, and mostly gotten caught and punished.  However some of us still admire his talent and want him on the top step again - preferably this season. 

So long as we all keep watching, while Monty is grinning and we are groaning (or vice-versa), it's still going to be good racing.   

[Monty]

Yeah it didn't look like Grossjean was hit by anyone, he just didn't realize MS was there...just racing' to me.

Grosjean took quite a major wheel to wheel hit and it knocked him to the left, I think he may then have actually moved further left to avoid more contact from the right but had not realised that Shumacher's front wheel was alongside his sidepod.

To you Schumacher fans can I reiterate, I have always accepted that Shumacher can drive. My point is that he was not any better than his peers. He just used team politics and cheating to get himself into Championship winning positions.
I think you all know that but choose to see him as some kind of driving god.
Through the years he has forced teams to hold back good team mates, he has insisted that team orders gave him positions he didn't deserve, he has driven people off the track, parked on the track to stop other people outqualifying him, etc., etc.
My real problem with him is that he has come back to F1 and continued his cheating ways and some of his latest actions have been the most dangerous.
What he did to Rubens was as near to attempted murder as you can get.
What he did to Lewis in Spain during Qualifying (drove down the escape road so he could overtake Lewis and then deliberately rejoined the track straight across Lewis'
nose) was another use of the car as a weapon.
I honestly feel he should be banned and I think the sport would be a better place without him.