Alonso Shines Family Silver

No one got near the McLarens as Fernando Alonso took his first pole position for the team just ahead of Lewis Hamilton. By MARK HUGHES

The top 10 run-off was a qualifying session with a bit of everything. Will it, won't it rain? The random variable of traffic and a flat-out fight for pole between McLaren team-mates Fernando Alonso and Lewis Hamilton.

As the session began there was a significant chance of rain. It was therefore entirely possible your first fuel-burn lap would turn out to be your actual best quallie lap. McLaren was onto this. New supersofts were fitted to both cars, good for one quick lap and with a big drop-off thereafter. Lewis and Fernando therefore had to be straight on it. Result: Hamilton 1m15.9s, Alonso 1m16.1s.

These were seriously quick times, especially so given they were running with 48 and 39kg of fuel respectively (so that fuel-corrected, Hamilton was around 0.4sec quicker). Had it actually rained at this point, Lewis would have secured his first pole. But it didn't, so the outcome was still open.

But it was always an exclusively McLaren battle. The red cars just didn't have quite the legs of the silver ones here. The Ferraris' balance was just a little more understeery on new tyres. Did the tight twists and turns of Monaco mean the Ferrari's long wheelbase was for once a handicap?

Besides, Kimi Raikkonen wasn't even in the run-off, having failed to set a lap in Q2 after breaking a steering arm against the barrier at the right-hander exiting the swimming pool in a bizarre misjudgement.

Up to that point, he had a seemingly comfortable margin over team-mate Felipe Massa. As Kimi eventually pulled up at the exit of Rascasse, just where his predecessor Michael Schumacher parked last year, it was even more ironic that in doing so, he spoiled Massa's lap. Raikkonen managed to crawl back to the pits and an effort was made at replacing the steering arm, but it was just too big a job for the available time.

Massa recovered and eventually just failed to split the McLarens on the front row - but he only came so close because the McLarens' final times were compromised.

With a few laps of fuel burned off the McLarens came in for a new set of softs each with nine minutes of the session left. Hamilton rejoined first, Alonso a few seconds later. Having set the fastest first sector time, Lewis then glanced the Casino Square barrier pretty solidly as he exited. This effectively wasted that set of supersofts.

Alonso, more measured, less attacking, improved on his heavy-fuel 16.1sec, but still trailed Hamilton's earlier effort by a few hundredths. There was time left for one more run each. Another set of new supersoft Bridgestones - there was less need to conserve them for the race as they were much the slower tyre over a stint because of their higher degradation - and out they went.

Hamilton was at his swashbuckling best: "I just love this place," he grinned later. "180mph between the barriers, it's just such a buzz." At the end of the first sector, he was already 0.35sec ahead of his earlier benchmark. This time he didn't nudge the Casino barrier but found Mark Webber's Red Bull - on an out-lap - there instead.

By the time he passed it on the tunnel entry, Hamilton had more than lost the 0.35sec he'd gained on himself. It had been all set to be 0.5sec quicker than his previous best and a clear pole. So now his earlier effort was vulnerable to Alonso's last lap.

Fernando had just not had Lewis's pace all weekend, even though his progress was rather less incident-filled. But now here was pole being handed to him on a plate. All he had to do was drive the lap. But what was this? A BMW - Robert Kubica - on an out-lap, trying like crazy to get to the start/finish line before the chequer fell.

So it wasn't going slow, but it was going slower than Alonso could have gone. Forced to follow it for the last couple of corners, Fernando could only hope that this would still be enough. It was, a 1m15.726s pipping Hamilton's earlier fuel-burning flyer by just 0.179sec.

Hamilton had almost been on pole by around 0.3sec despite five extra laps worth of fuel. Fuel corrected, he was 0.5sec faster than his team-mate. Nonetheless, it was Alonso's first pole for McLaren, the team's first pole of the season.

A tight-lipped smile from Fernando, a big 'oh well' grin from Hamilton, knowing he'd had the legs of Alonso all weekend and that he had a very real chance of his first victory on Sunday.

Surprisingly no-one else copied the McLaren tactic of going straight onto new supersofts at the beginning of the session, but some - notably Massa and Renault's Giancarlo Fisichella - did pit after a single burn-off flyer, concerned that rain seemed to be imminent. As it happened, there was a bit of a shower mid-way through the session but it lasted just a few laps.

Massa finally got his lap together right at the end after his various delays - he'd come to a halt avoiding his team-mate at Rascasse and been delayed by Hamilton on an out-lap subsequently - and was satisfied that was all there was to get from the Ferrari this weekend.

New-tyre understeer was again the bugbear, though he had seemed more afflicted by it than team-mate Raikkonen who, before his Q2 error, had looked comfortably faster. "I think I could have been fighting for pole," said Kimi, dejected at his mistake.

The BMWs were not their usual threat, having opted to go heavy and three lighter cars - Fisichella's Renault, Nico Rosberg's Williams and Mark Webber's Red Bull - got themselves between Massa and the F1.07s.

With the benefit of a new front wing that was brought in on Friday, Fisi was getting a good balance from the R27, enabling him to really attack the circuit and go fourth, 0.56sec off pole. "The team has been working really hard on finding an improvement and by the end of qualifying the balance was really good," he summarised.

Rosberg in fifth was unusual in that he set his time on the harder tyre - but only because they had used up all the new supersofts available to them in Q3, the first on a high-fuel run in anticipation of rain, the second on a wing adjustment that didn't give the desired result.

"We've made some progress with the car," said Patrick Head, "and they are things that are not just Monaco-specific but which should carry through to subsequent races."

Webber had only really got into the swing of the place in Q2 and prior to that had trailed team-mate David Coulthard by a significant margin. DC remained 0.1sec quicker in Q2, eighth fastest of the session, but was not allowed to take part in the run-off as a penalty for impeding Heikki Kovalainen's flying lap while on his out-lap.

He was also penalised a further two places, meaning he would start 13th. Webber just pipped the BMWs to go sixth fastest. Robert Kubica did a great lap with a heavy fuel load. Fuel-adjusted he was fourth fastest, over 0.4sec quicker than Nick Heidfeld, just ahead of him on the grid.