Webber flies to Monaco GP pole

Kubica looked like a strong favourite for a shock underdog pole as his early Q3 time put him a massive 1.1s clear of the field.

He started improving even more on his next run, but Webber was going faster still, sneaking ahead with a 1m14.104s.

Kubica's response was a 1m14.120s, leaving him second, with Webber then making certain of the top spot by producing a 1m13.826s with his final lap of the hour, as he maintained his momentum after dominating in Spain.

Sebastian Vettel took third in the second Red Bull, ahead of Q1 leader Felipe Massa, who was Ferrari's only representative in the session following the practice crash that left Fernando Alonso on the sidelines with a damaged chassis.

McLaren had a disappointing session, with Lewis Hamilton and Jenson Button back in fifth and eighth, split by the Mercedes. Nico Rosberg beat Michael Schumacher this time, albeit by just 0.046s.

Rubens Barrichello showed Williams's strongest dry weather form of the year by taking ninth, with his rookie team-mate Nico Hulkenberg also driving well for 11th.

Tonio Liuzzi put his recent qualifying troubles behind him by completing the top ten, as his Force India team-mate Adrian Sutil missed Q3 for the second time in a week and lined up 12th.

Vitaly Petrov slewed into the Sainte Devote barriers late in Q2 and will start 14th, ahead of the Saubers and Jaime Alguersuari - the latter four places and 0.7s adrift of Toro Rosso team-mate Sebastien Buemi on his first Monaco F1 appearance.

Alonso's absence took the sting out of Q1, the Ferrari automatically becoming the one frontrunner to join the new teams in elimination and taking the pressure off everyone else.

Heikki Kovalainen tried his utmost to spring a surprise and get Lotus into Q2, and was within 0.3s of Hulkenberg and Kobayashi for a while. Spins at Mirabeau and Loews on consecutive laps showed how hard he was pushing as he ended up still 18th but only 2.3s off the pace.

Pos  Driver         Team                    Q1        Q2        Q3   
 1.  Webber         Red Bull-Renault       1:15.035   1:14.462  1:13.826
 2.  Kubica         Renault                1:15.045   1:14.549  1:14.120
 3.  Vettel         Red Bull-Renault       1:15.110   1:14.568  1:14.227
 4.  Massa          Ferrari                1:14.757   1:14.405  1:14.283
 5.  Hamilton       McLaren-Mercedes       1:15.676   1:14.527  1:14.432
 6.  Rosberg        Mercedes               1:15.188   1:14.375  1:14.544
 7.  Schumacher     Mercedes               1:15.649   1:14.691  1:14.590
 8.  Button         McLaren-Mercedes       1:15.623   1:15.150  1:14.637
 9.  Barrichello    Williams-Cosworth      1:15.590   1:15.083  1:14.901
10.  Liuzzi         Force India-Mercedes   1:15.397   1:15:061  1:15.170
11.  Hulkenberg     Williams-Cosworth      1:16.030   1:15.317
12.  Sutil          Force India-Mercedes   1:15.445   1:15.318
13.  Buemi          Toro Rosso-Ferrari     1:15.961   1:15.413
14.  Petrov         Renault                1:15.482   1:15.576
15.  de la Rosa     Sauber-Ferrari         1:15.908   1:15.692
16.  Kobayashi      Sauber-Ferrari         1:16.175   1:15.992
17.  Alguersuari    Toro Rosso-Ferrari     1:16.021   1:16.176
18.  Kovalainen     Lotus-Cosworth         1:17.094
19.  Trulli         Lotus-Cosworth         1:17.134
20.  Glock          Virgin-Cosworth        1:17.377
21.  di Grassi      Virgin-Cosworth        1:17.864
22.  Senna          HRT-Cosworth           1:18.509
23.  Chandhok       HRT-Cosworth           1:19.559
24.  Alonso         Ferrari                No time

All Timing Unofficial