Honda drivers rue Coulthard shunt

Jenson Button and Rubens Barrichello were both forced to abort their final flying laps as Coulthard's Red Bull shot-off down the escape road at the chicane after the tunnel, and both drivers believed they had the speed to make it onto the first five rows of the grid.

Jenson Button, who eventually qualified 12th, said: "We spent the session working on the balance, trying to remove understeer from the car in the high-speed corners, which we achieved and the balance was improving.

"On my last run, the car felt good and I gained almost 0.2secs in the first sector on my previous best time, then in the second sector Coulthard had his incident which unfortunately meant I couldn't improve my time because of the yellow flags," he added.
"The car was well set-up for my final run in Q2 and the last sector is where we would have improved further, as we had a better front-end for the high-speed corners. Sadly the yellow flags prevented us from realising our full potential.

"We're not in the top ten and it's disappointing. That's Monaco for you and what is important is that we know the car was quick enough to have improved."

Barrichello felt exactly the same, and starting from 15th on the grid, the Brazilian is hoping for rain on Sunday.

"It was certainly a disappointing second session for us," said F1's most experienced driver. "Unfortunately I didn't have a good first run because of traffic and then my second outing was interrupted by the yellow flags.

"It's a shame as the car was certainly competitive enough to get into Q3. However there is no place for 'if only' in Formula One and we are down in 15th, so it will be a tough race from there."