Vettel Takes 10th Pole; Perez Hurt in Monaco

MONTE CARLO, Monaco- After Lewis Hamilton dominated the first two qualifying sessions, Sebastian Vettel continued his great season Saturday by recording a 1: 13:556 fastest pole time in the final period to take pole for Sunday’s Grand Prix of Monaco at Monte Carlo. Jenson Button was second fastest, and Mark Webber who had been quiet for most of the afternoon was third.

For Vettel, it was his 20th pole, but it was his first at the principality.

“It is a long away and qualifying is tough,’ replied Vettel. “You have to give 100 percent.”

Certainly Hamilton was the fastest man that was giving that much effort early on, with performances of 1:15:207 and 1:14:275 fastest laps respectively. Nico Rosberg, who came crashing out of the tunnel with his Mercedes in the final practice session earlier in the day, just missed the retaining wall and due to the efforts of the team, managed to come out in the first session with a completely rebuilt car, and finished in fifth in the opening session. Many of the drivers began using super soft tires right away, just to move on to the last two rounds. But two drivers who will not continue were the Two HRT cars of Narin Karthakayan and Vitantonio Luizzi, who did not make the required 107 percent rule, and will not be on the grid for Sunday.

Two surprising rookies, Sergio Perez and Pastor Maldonado, managed to advance to the final round with ninth and tenth places at the end of the second session.

However, with a little over two minutes to go in the last session, Perez lost control of his Sauber and crashed out of the tunnel and sideways into the barrier at the end of that location. It took Marshalls and emergency teams to clear the wreck and extract the injured Mexican out of the car. At the latest reports, the Sauber diver was conscious but complained of pain in his legs. It is still unknown whether or not he will be able to drive on Sunday.

The incident delayed the final session for a half hour before the track was clear, but when the qualifying resumed, nobody could come close to Vettel’s best time.

Fernando Alonso took fourth best time in his Ferrari, while Michael Schumacher had his best performance since returning to the Formula One scene with fifth. Felipe Massa was sixth, while Hamilton was a disappointing seventh. Rosberg finished eighth, while Maldonado took ninth, while Perez rounded up the top ten.

A lot of drivers were thinking of Perez, and even Vettel was in the same mode after the session.

“The most important thing is that Sergio is ok,” Vettel said afterwards.” We are all thinking of him it was not easy to wait a long time but I am very pleased. It is a long way and a long race pit stops could change things, but there no guarantees here.”