Pastor Maldonado has repeated his triumphs of last year by claiming pole in Monaco once again, taking  the  top  spot  in  this  afternoon's  qualifying  session  despite  constant  pressure  from  Bruno Senna and Mike Conway.

Maldonado's  best  lap  of  1:21.057  was  set  halfway  through  the  session,  putting  himself  at  the head of the timesheets despite touching the wall on entry to the tunnel: his rivals pushed hard to match  the  Venezuelan's  time  but  just  missed  out,  with  a  red  flag  in  the  closing  stages  of  the session putting paid to their efforts. Once again Maldonado was the first man on track, with Andy Soucek just behind him: the latter was soon to regret his haste as he collected the wall at St Devote.

The Venezuelan pushed a little too hard at the same corner next time by, but managed to stay off the barriers and find his way back on track with the help of the marshals. Romain  Grosjean,  Adrian  Valles  and  Senna  set  the  early  pace  as  everyone  tried  to  find  a  way through  the  traffic,  a  task  which  was  made  a  little  more  difficult  when  Ho-Pin  Tung  ran  too  hot through the swimming pool complex and lost the rear of his car at the exit, with Marcello Puglisi also  going  through  Casino  square  too  fast  and  finding  out  the  hard  way  just  how  close  the barriers are at this circuit.

But  when  most  of  the  field  came  in  for  new  tyres  Maldonado  struck,  setting  two  fast  laps  and giving his competitors a target to aim for: Valles was in fourth place and looking for more but just caught the barriers at St Devote, which pitched him into a spin and the wall on the other side of the track, prompting an immediate red flag.

With just three minutes remaining it was unlikely that anyone would improve their times when the circuit reopened, and so it proved. Just behind the top three Valles managed to hold on to fourth position despite his accident, just ahead  of  Giorgio  Pantano,  Karun  Chandhok,  Romain  Grosjean  and  Sébastien  Buemi,  with  the first 14 drivers covered by just one second despite the usual traffic woes. With so many drivers this close on the timesheets, tomorrow's race promises to be a race not to be missed.