Button just about got up there to be on pole, maybe the Brawn is being caught up by the other teams? Raikkonen grabbing second was a surprise, Ferrari didn’t seem to be improving that much. On the subject of Ferrari I don’t like how they’ve thrown the toys out of the pram with this whole budget cap business, and is it me or were McLaren a little bit too silent on this? Keeping their heads below the parapet me thinks.

I’ve gotten myself a new Blog incidentally, nothing really posted yet but with the Local and European elections coming up that will change. http://absurdcosmos.blogspot.com/

World champion Lewis Hamilton has admitted he has lost any chance of repeating his 2008 Monaco victory after crashing out of qualifying in Q1, following his most competitive showing of the year through practice.

The McLaren driver will line up 16th on the grid after losing control of his car at Mirabeau and damaging his left rear suspension in the process.

“My race weekend for a win is for sure over,” he told the BBC. “I just don’t know what I was thinking. I made a mistake. It had been going well all weekend.”

Hamilton had spent free practice right among the front-runners and ended Saturday morning practice just 0.225s slower than Fernando Alonso’s fastest time, and admitted he was gutted to have let down his team.

“I apologise to the team for wasting their time, and at least Heikki is doing well,” he said. “He is up there. I wish him all the best. Tomorrow I will do the best job I can to try and recover from it.

“It’s just been tough, but you learn from these mistakes and they are bound to happen. It’s unfortunate it happened in the first part of qualifying, but this is what makes you stronger.”

It’s going to be a difficult race for the world champion way down in P16. The best he can hope for is to stay away from the barriers and hope the other cars ahead suffer retirements so he can gain track positions. Overtaking is a real challenge and if McLaren are running an unusual pit strategy to leapfrog the cars ahead, then a top ten finish is not out of the question. What is a shame is that Lewis was looking really strong going into qualifying after setting some really quick times in all three practice sessions. To crash the MP4-24 in Q1 was a major disappointment and he has admitted it was his mistake. Hopefully he can turn this bad result into something good on Sunday.

Jenson Button admitted he was ‘chuffed to bits’ after snatching his fourth pole position of the season ahead of tomorrow’s Monaco Grand Prix.

The championship leader beat Ferrari rival Kimi Raikkonen with his now usual late effort, emerging just 0.025 seconds ahead of the Finn at the circuit where the top spot could be crucial for the race.

Brawn driver Button admitted the whole session had been very tight, and the Briton was delighted with his second pole in a row.

“It means a lot – they all do,” said Button. “Today was a really tight fight, all weekend I have been fighting with Rubens and he has definitely had the upper hand. McLaren has been up there, Ferrari up there, the Red Bulls, it has been a fun weekend.

“Qualifying was no different, it was manic, but great to come away with the pole – to snatch pole I am chuffed to bits.”

Button said the weekend had not started perfectly for him, but the British driver managed to recover to emerge as favourite for another victory.

“It might look like it (perfect) from the outside,” he said. “I was a long way off in P1 on Thursday and didn’t know where we were, but all weekend we have improved it a little bit, that is the great thing with this year’s car.”

Button, winner of four of the first five races of the year, said he is expecting a difficult race tomorrow.

“You enjoy the moment, but it is strange because it is a lot more stressful than you think. You want to stay in this position obviously. At this point of the season every time I need to score points.

“It is not going to be easy, it is difficult to overtake here, but for sure it is not going to be easy. The way things are going this season it is a fantastic feeling, so thanks again and hopefully we can have a good day tomorrow.”

Ross Brawn paid tribute to his driver Jenson Button after the world championship leader took his fourth pole position in six races at Monaco on Saturday.

Button waited until the dying seconds of the top ten shoot-out to depose Kimi Raikkonen from pole to record his first in Monaco and his seventh in total.

“I think he is getting into the habit of saving the best until last,” Brawn told the BBC. “He did it at the last race as well.”

Button had not looked like a contender for pole through qualifying and was only eight fastest in the low fuel runs of Q2.

And despite watching Raikkonen set his best time on his third lap with the super-soft tyres, the Englishman stuck to his strategy of going for pole on his second flyer.

“He was not completely happy [with the car],” said Brawn, “but little adjustments here and there with the car setting and he knew that was the lap that he had to produce and he is just driving exceptionally well at the moment.

“We were going for the second lap and we saw that Kimi in particular got a very good lap on the third lap, and I think [Nico] Rosberg. But of course in the last session, when you put fuel in you put a little bit of extra load, and extra heat, into the tyres, so we stayed with our two lap approach.”

Button’s team-mate Rubens Barrichello will line-up third on the grid behind Raikkonen, who recorded his best qualifying performance of the year.