Webber on pole again

Mark Webber produced an astonishing flying lap in the closing seconds of yesterday's hotly-contested qualifying session to maintain Red Bull's supremacy in speed this season and take pole position for today's Monaco Grand Prix.

The 33-year-old Australian, who took pole last week on his way to winning the Spanish Grand Prix and is many observers' tip as a strong contender to lift the drivers world title this year, clocked the only sub one minute and 14 seconds lap so far this weekend.

He recorded a best time of 1:13.826, a virtuous effort that extended the Red Bull team's run of poles this year to six out of six races.

It brought Webber his fourth career pole after he had out-paced nearest rival Pole Robert Kubica in a Renault by three-tenths of a second.

It is the first time that the popular Australian has delivered back-to-back pole positions.

His Red Bull team-mate German Sebastian Vettel was third fastest ahead of Brazilian Felipe Massa of Ferrari, the 2008 champion Briton Lewis Hamilton of McLaren and German Nico Rosberg in a Mercedes.

The seven-times champion German Michael Schumacher was seventh in the second Mercedes ahead of defending champion and current series leader Briton Jenson Button in the second McLaren with Brazilian veteran Rubens Barrichello ninth for Williams and Italian Vitantonio Liuzzi of Force India an excellent 10th.

The opening session Q1 saw the removal of the usual suspects, the six drivers from the three new teams, and none of the widely predicted trouble associated with all cars running together on track looking for a fast timed lap.

At least this time they were in good company with the 24th place on the grid - in the pit lane in fact - reserved for two-times champion Spaniard Fernando Alonso, of Ferrari, following his big crash in the morning's practice session.

Veteran Italian Jarno Trulli, who was 19th just behind his Lotus team-mate Finn Heikki Kovalainen said: "It was difficult for me because I lost a lot of time, my final set-up changes were just before the session but we are much closer than expected to the cars in front so that is a good sign."

Indian Karun Chandhok, who was slowest for the struggling Hispania team, one place behind his team-mate Brazilian Bruno Senna, said he had had a frustrating session.

"That was very frustrating, we are a second behind where we think we should be, which is bad even by our standards. We lost grip. It's a bit like the problem Bruno had on Thursday, a mysterious lack of grip, and it's not good."