Maldonado king of Monaco qualifying

The Venezuelan Piquet Sports driver lapped the famous street circuit in 1:21.057s, which was 0.178s quicker than iSport's Bruno Senna.

Maldonado's session did not start well, as he shot up the escape road on his second flying lap, and was lucky to be deemed to be in a dangerous position so he was allowed a push backwards from the marshals.

He ran second to Senna early on, but soon got into his stride. He took the top spot halfway through, with a 1:21.189s, and followed that up with a second clear lap to lower the mark to 1:21.057s. That lap featured him brushing the wall on the exit of Portier, which proved how hard he was pushing.

Mike Conway led the surprises by snatching third position in his Trident Racing machine, just half a tenth off Senna's time.

The session was red flagged with 3:19s on the clock when Adrian Valles, who had just set the fourth fastest time, clobbered the wall at Ste Devote, removing his left-rear corner and spinning across the track to the inside wall. His car deposited much of its oil across the track, causing the stoppage.

At the restart, no-one in the top eight improved, so series leader Giorgio Pantano (Racing Engineering) will start fifth, ahead of Karun Chandhok (iSport), Romain Grosjean (ART) and Sebastien Buemi (Arden).

The latter pairing, who scrapped over last year's F3 Euro Series crown, set exactly the same time, but Buemi set his lap just before the red flag - so Grosjean will start ahead of him having set his time earlier.

Andi Zuber qualified ninth for Piquet Sports, but his position is likely to be reviewed by stewards after his clash with Adam Carroll this morning. The team are currently appealing the first decision, so how many places he will be penalised is as-yet unclear.

Jerome d'Ambrosio set the 10th fastest lap for DAMS, his car retaining the requisite number of wheels in this session, unlike in free practice.

At the back, Andy Soucek's return to DPR was a disaster. After running fourth fastest this morning, he got no further than the Ste Devote tyrewall on his first flying lap.

Also in the wall was Ben Hanley, who visited the Ste Devote tyres for the second time today, and Ho-Pin Tung, who made it as far as the Swimming Pool before shunting his car into the barrier. Durango newcomer Marcello Puglisi was another to spin out, this time on the exit of Casino Square.

Pos Driver                 Team                   Time          Gap
 1. Pastor Maldonado       Piquet Sports          1:21.057
 2. Bruno Senna            iSport                 1:21.235   +0.178
 3. Mike Conway            Trident                1:21.283   +0.226
 4. Adrian Valles          BCN                    1:21.368   +0.311
 5. Giorgio Pantano        Racing Engineering     1:21.466   +0.409
 6. Karun Chandhok         iSport                 1:21.614   +0.557
 7. Romain Grosjean        ART                    1:21.663   +0.606
 8. Sebastien Buemi        Arden                  1:21.663   +0.606
 9. Jerome d'Ambrosio      DAMS                   1:21.773   +0.716
10. Alvaro Parente         Super Nova             1:21.777   +0.720
11. Luca Filippi           ART                    1:21.849   +0.792
12. Vitaly Petrov          Campos                 1:21.907   +0.850
13. Adam Carroll           FMS                    1:21.981   +0.924
14. Christian Bakkerud     Super Nova             1:22.210   +1.153
15. Ben Hanley             Campos                 1:22.697   +1.640
16. Kamui Kobayashi        DAMS                   1:22.785   +1.728
17. Yelmer Buurman         Arden                  1:22.802   +1.745
18. Javier Villa           Racing Engineering     1:23.048   +1.991
19. Diego Nunes            DPR                    1:23.224   +2.167
20. Milos Pavlovic         BCN                    1:23.684   +2.627
21. Ho-Pin Tung            Trident                1:23.798   +2.741
22. Alberto Valerio        Durango                1:24.037   +2.980
23. Roldan Rodriguez       FMS                    1:24.283   +3.226
24. Andi Zuber             Piquet Sports          1:21.667   +0.610
25. Marcello Puglisi       Durango                1:24.633   +3.576
26. Andy Soucek            DPR                    no time