Monaco Quali Liveblog

Well, considering that I managed to find a decent stream right as Hamilton smashed the car in Q1, here goes….qualifying from the most fantastic track on the calendar.

Current last five:  Buemi, Kubica, Fisichella, Bourdais, and Heidfeld.

BMW’s been slow all weekend.  Kubica cannot be happy.

Riding with the BBC as the quali session resumes after a red flag for Hamilton.

Massa first out–he nearly spun the car on his first outlap and destroyed the nose.  Ferrari replaced it, gave him some mind management in the pits(!) and sent him back out.

Kimi completes his next flier, but he’s 1.6 seconds off the pace.

Massa on a decent flier after two warmup laps.  Half a second off in the second sector.

Only to 9th.

Kimi puts in a much better lap which moves him to SECOND.  Massa is as usual getting murdered in Monaco quali.

Vettel to P4.  Top ten:  Barrichello, Raikkonen, Button, Vettel, Nakajima, Sutil, Hamilton, Kovalainen, Rosberg.

Massa to P4.

2:00 to go.

Kubica starting a flier.

Button goes half a second quicker than anybody–giant shot of Richard Branson’s beard.  My viewing is enhanced.  NOT!

Kubica goes P13.  Will it be enough?

Webber to 5th.  Piquet to 10th.  Hamilton 13th now.

Alonso to P8.

Vettel abandons his second to last lap due to a…yellow flag?

Heidfeld is 18th and basically screwed.

Checkered flag!

Massa to P2.

Kubica to P17, toast.

Rosberg QUICKEST?  Impossible.

Buemi in the end was EIGHTH.  Fantastic performance by the rookie.

Both Force Indias through to Q2!

Heidfeld, Kubica, Trulli, Bourdais, Glock, the final five.  Toyota’s toast.  Simply toast; even behind BMW.

Replay of Glock going in circles in the Swimming Pool chicane.

Time for a five minute break before Q2.

Eddie Jordan:  “Toyota is slow in slow speed corners.”  Captain Obvious to the rescue!

Q2 begins.  Fifteen minute session.

Nakajima is out first.

Raikkonen to P1 – 1:15.332.

Webber 0.020 off in the first sector.

Vettel to P1. 1:15.217.

Nakajima to P4.  Webber to P7.

Rosberg to….P1!  1:14.846.  Four tenths up.

Vettel does a 1:14.926.

Barrichello first–Webber first….Massa only to P5.

Kovalainen to P1!

Quicker times almost every lap.

Piquet spins into the final corner and BARELY doesn’t whack off the wall.

Alonso to P8.  Quickest in the final practice but can’t get it done so far in Q2.

6:15 to go.

Fisichella gets DQ’d for cutting the swimming pool chicane.

Final five:  Piquet, Buemi, Sutil, Bourdais, Fisichella.  Eh?  Apparently Bourdais didn’t get kicked out in Q1 like I was shown.

Updated Q1 dropout:  Hamilton, Kubica, Heidfeld, Trulli, Glock.

Fisichella on track–apparently with two of his times from Q1 gone he still was quick enough to participate in Q2.

Still only to P15.

Button is slow apparently–no idea why.

Sutil looking good–goes to P13.  Can he make it to Q3 on a last ditch flier?

Massa begins his final lap.

Buemi to P11–one more lap.

Raikkonen to P1 by 3 tenths.

Barrichello to P4.

Button is seriously slow–what’s wrong?

Alonso to P9–Button is only EIGHTH?  Three seconds off in the second sector.

11th through 15th:  Buemi, Piquet, Fisichella, Bourdais, Sutil.

Nakajima makes it to Q3 for the first time in 2009.

Five minute break before the ten minute shootout!

Massive interview with Hamilton.

Apologizing to the team–he looks about as dejected as is humanly possible.  Forces a smile.

Q3 in a moment after a completely pointless interview with Eddie Jordan.

And Q3 has begun.

Vettel out first.  BBC suspects Kimi will be on pole.

Kovalainen looking good.

Only Webber and Nakajima are still in the pits.

Vettel does a 1:16.206.

Button to P2-1:16.3.

Barrichello to P4 behind Raikkonen.

Button a tenth quicker in the first sector of his second lap.

Rosberg to P1 by 0.604!  Light fuel surely.

Button 0.052 down in sector 2 relative to Rosberg.

Vettel to P1!

Button to P3.  “Not enough”

Barrichello to P2 by only 0.075.

Kovalainen to P6.  Not too bad compared to Barcelona.

Webber finally out while Vettel comes in for tyres before a final run.

Rosberg in too.

4:00 to go.

Nakajima is “ninth but out of the top ten.”  Martin Brundle emulating Murray Walker?

Kimi is relatively slow–only to P7.  Webber to 9th but apparently on a better lap now.

Kimi 0.3 off after S2.  He goes to P2!  Not too bad, 0.027 off.

Rosberg out for a final “do or die” lap with a minute to go.

Vettel, Raikkonen, Rosberg, Barrichello, Button, Webber, Massa, Kovalainen, Alonso, Nakajima.

Massa to 3rd.  Alonso to P9 still.

Raikkonen is 0.1 quicker.  Button is 0.28 quicker in S1!

Kimi goes P1, 1:14.9.

Button to P1 with a 1:14.9!

Barrichello to P3 only.

Vettel coming around….P4.  Kovalainen to 7th.

Massa parks it.

Alonso to P9.  Webber to P8.

Another Button pole.  MSC, v2.0.

That lap was FANTASTICALLY quick from Jense–brilliant.  Nick Fry claps Richard Branson on the back.

Button, Raikkonen, Barrichello, Vettel, Massa, Rosberg, Kovalainen, Webber, Alonso, Nakajima are the top ten.

Kimi in the top three–the press conferences are starting to cry already.

This has been Monaco qualifying with CTTR–goodbye and we will see you for the race!