Montanari Takes Monaco Pole

In order to avoid too many cars running on the narrow Monaco track at the same time, race organisers split the hour-long qualifying session into two, with one 25-minute session determining the odd-numbers of the grid, and the second 25-minute session determining the even-numbers of the grid.

Montanari, who took part in the second session, set the fastest time of the day in the dying moments of the session, just two tenths of a second faster than Dutch Jaap Van Lagen, who ran in the first session.

The overall grid proved to be extremely competitive, with one second covering places one to thirteen.

However, only 26 cars line up for the Monaco race, after four drivers have been banned from the event for dangerous driving in Thursday's practice.

DAMS driver Pastor Maldonado and Eurointernational's Matteo Meneghello have both been banned from nine races - the next four rounds and this weekend's race. However for Meneghello that includes suspended bans for two of the next four rounds.

Carlin's Andreas Zuber and Jenzer's Colin Fleming were banned from the Monaco race and will carry an additional suspended ban.

World Series by Renault - Combined Qualifying Result:

Pos  Driver               Team                    Time
 1.  Christian Montanari  Draco Multiracing USA   1:25.465
 2.  Jaap Van Lagen       KTR                     1:25.655
 3.  Adrian Valles        Pons Racing             1:25.680
 4.  Robert Kubica        Epsilon Euskadi         1:25.725
 5.  Tristan Gommendy     KTR                     1:25.757
 6.  Milos Pavlovic       GD Racing               1:25.825
 7.  Enrico Toccacelo     Victory Engineering     1:26.315
 8.  Damien Pasini        Cram Competition        1:26.018
 9.  Daniel La Rosa       Interwetten.com         1:26.388
10.  Markus Winkelhock    Draco Multiracing USA   1:26.214
11.  Ryo Fukuda           DHG Saulnier Racing     1:26.662
12.  Simon Pagenaud       DHG Saulnier Racing     1:26.217
13.  Felix Porteiro       Epsilon Euskadi         1:26.693
14.  Will Power           Carlin Motorsport       1:26.473
15.  Giorgio Mondini      Eurointernational       1:26.736
16.  Celso Miguez         Pons Racing             1:27.143
17.  Patrick Pilet        Jenzer Motorsport       1:26.956
18.  Alex Lloyd           DAMS                    1:27.734
19.  Eric Salignon        Cram Competition        1:27.592
20.  Giovanni Tedeschi    RC Motorsport           1:27.977
21.  Frederic Vervisch    GD Racing               1:28.142
22.  Sven Barth           Interwetten.com         1:29.261
23.  Karun Chandhok       RC Motorsport           1:28.614
24.  Ivan Bellarosa       Avelon Formula          1:29.421
25.  Mehdi Bennani        Avelon Formula          1:32.803
26.  Tomas Kostka         Victory Engineering     1:29.838