NewsOnF1 - 2002 Monaco GP - Qualifying Report

Juan Pablo Montoya grabbed his 2nd Pole position of the season ahead of David Coulthard and Michael Schumacher. Ralf Schumacher, Rubens Barrichello and Kimi Raikkonen make the top 6.

It was the closest qualifying session in a long time but in the end it was Juan Pablo Montoya who grabbed Pole on his final run just under 0.4 seconds clear of David Coulthard. His time was over 0.7 seconds faster than the pole time last year. The top 5 drivers managed to better last year's pole time.

As expected in Monaco, traffic played a major role in determining the final grid with a lot of drivers having to abort their laps due to traffic. Timing and luck is everything at this tight circuit.

The first driver out was Alex Yoong who crashed his car on his first run. Then 17 minutes into the session Irvine went out and was the first to set a time. Montoya was the first of the top runners to grab provisional pole then it was Coulthard, then Barrichello then Trulli then Michael taking turns at provisional pole. 40 minutes into the session and Coulthard grabbed provisional pole back only for Montoya to take it then his team-mate bettered his time by just 0.001 seconds. Coulthard snatched provisional pole back but Montoya in the end secured it with a stunning time of 1:16.676. A number of drivers could have challenged for pole but had to abort their laps due to traffic including Rubens Barrichello, Ralf Schumacher and Jarno Trulli. Trulli qualifying time was actually slower than his best time from practice!

Behind the top 6, Raikkonen managed 7th with Button in 8th while the 2 Toyotas delivered on their early pace going 9th and 10th. Fisichella was the best Honda runner in 11th ahead of Frentzen who was the best Cosworth runner. Felipe Massa on his debut at this track managed 13th fastest and just under half a second ahead of his team-mate.
Mark Webber managed 19th fastest and ahead of the 2 Jaguars despite only having 2 runs.

In the battle of the team-mates, Mark Webber managed to out-qualify his team-mate Alex Yoong by a massive 1.925 seconds. Giancarlo Fisichella out-qualified his team-mate Takuma Sato by 1.119 seconds and Heinz Harald Frentzen out-qualified his team-mate Enrique Bernoldi by 0.805 seconds.
Closest were Mika Salo and Allan McNish with just 0.058 seconds separating them. Michael Schumacher and Rubens Barrichello with only 0.239 seconds separating them and Jacques Villeneuve out-qualifying his team-mate Olivier Panis by 0.317 seconds.

1 second separates the top 6, 2 seconds separate the top 12 and 3 seconds separate the top 20.

David Coulthard (2), Mika Salo (9) and Allan McNish (10) had their best qualifying positions this season while Juan Pablo Montoya (1) equalled his best position.
Nick Heidfeld (17) had their worst qualifying positions of the season while Michael Schumacher (3), Ralf Schumacher (4), Kimi Raikkonen (6th), Olivier Panis (18) and Alex Yoong (22) equalled their worst positions so far this season.

Click here for a more detailed analysis including the Also Ran award by the Quali-flyer
Click here of the Qualifying table for the drivers this season

Qualifying is crucial here as overtaking is nearly impossible. Pit stops will also play a crucial role here as it is the only real way to overtake. Attrition due to driver error is very high on this track so don't expect more than 10 cars to finish the race.

Race starts at 2:00 PM local time. Our coverage starts at 1:30 PM local time.

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Session	2002			2001
First Thursday Practice	Results	Report	Notes	Results
Second Thursday Practice	Results	Report	Notes	Results
First Saturday Practice	Results	Report	Notes	Results
Second Saturday Practice	Results	Report	Notes	Results
Qualifying	Results	Report	Notes	Results
Warm-up	Results	Report	Notes	Results
Race	Results	Report	Notes	Results
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