Vettel: Pole still crucial at Monaco

The German secured his fifth pole in six races in an interrupted qualifying session on Saturday.

And although the Red Bull driver conceded the race at Monte Carlo will be very long and difficult, he insists starting from the top spot is still vital.

"It is a long race always here, a bit of a casino," said Vettel. "Seventy-eight laps is a long race and as we have seen grands prix this year with multiple pitstops that could change in the last minutes.

"But one thing that remains unchanged is that pole position is very important here. All eyes are on tomorrow's race and we have to push hard - so see will what we can do.

"All in all I am very happy with qualifying, starting on clean side, so it couldn't be any better."

Vettel admitted it was hard to be 100 per cent focused after seeing Sergio Perez's accident with two minutes of the session left.

"You sit inside your car, asking for feedback and updates, and to be honest it is difficult to keep the focus and you don't feel 100 per cent well when you don't know what is going on. The message is that he is fine, conscious, talking and it's a big relief."

Although Perez was conscious and talking, world champion Vettel said today's crash should serve as a wake-up call to improve safety even more.

"If we have comparisons to the past then between the lines you can read criteria that things are too safe these days, but things like these are a wake.up call. We have to make sure we learn from this, although there is little we can do for tomorrow.

"The best message is that Sergio is okay. We race on street circuits like this or Singapore, and it is the drivers' job to make sure we defend ourselves. That should be the targets. But the most important thing is that Sergio is okay and we will have a good and safe race tomorrow."