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Schumacher Takes First Pole In Six Years At Monaco

MONTE CARLO, Monaco- Despite having to be moved back to the sixth grid slot because of an incident with Bruno Senna two weeks ago in Spain, Michael Schumacher set a fast lap time at the very last second to win his first pole position Saturday at the Grand Prix of Monaco in Monte Carlo. For the former seven time world champion, it was his 69 th pole of his career and his first since the 2006 French Grand Prix. Mark Webber finished in second, and officially, the Australian will start in first on race day, while Schumacher’s teammate, Nico Rosberg took third.

“First of all, I am more than thrilled in making a pole” stated Schumacher. “And Monaco to all of us is the track of the year, very prestigious kind of position. And to manage pole position after what we had to go through two and a half years is just fabulous. ”

Fabulous as well was the weather. With a prediction of an 80 percent of rain that converted to a clear and gorgeous afternoon, drivers could only get five minutes into the opening session when Sauber driver Sergio Perez struck the wall coming into the swimming pool complex and damaged his left rear side tire, bringing out a red flag for five minutes before the session could begin again. Once it did, Sahara Force India’s Nico Hulkenberg received his reward as the fastest driver of the session, posting a 1:15:418, while the two Caterham, Marussia and HRT drivers all failed to advance, along with Perez.

Frenchman Jean-Eric Vergne was the next victim of the tight circuit in the principality, striking the wall in the second session, while coming out of the tunnel. The Toro Rosso driver managed to limp back to the pits, slowing some cars down, but not bringing out the red flag, unlike what Perez did. Felipe Massa, who so far has had a horrible season, managed to be the first driver to break the one minute, 15 second barrier, set the fastest time with a 1:14:911, while the only casualty of the top drivers was Jenson Button, who finished in 13 th and failed to advance.

Many of the top ten final qualifiers were all on the track in the final seconds, but Sebastian Vettel was one who was not, managing to conserve his tires on race day and did not set a time, finishing in 10 th . Lewis Hamilton drove a quiet session, but managed to finish 4 th , while Romain Grosjean kept improving, taking fifth. The Ferrari pair of Fernando Alonso and Massa was next in 6 th and 7 th respectively, while Kimi Raikkonen and Pastor Maldonado finished in the next two slots.

For Schumacher, who was glad what he had done, the penalty he will serve does not faze him for Sunday.

“To me, I am obviously excited” he replied afterwards, “And this confirms what I have felt for a long time. It is sometimes great that it worked out, and I have to say a great thanks to the guys that I work with that have a special bond and it reunites us, so I have all the trust in Mercedes and the team had in me and supported me and hopefully we can do well tomorrow.”

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