* Engine Change - drops 10 places on the grid

 Q1 Lewis Hamilton - Q2 Fernando Alonso and for Q3 Lewis Hamilton was the favourite to take pole position.  It was and edge of the seat final to see which McLaren driver could take the honours with Hamilton pulling a stunning 1m15.905s out of the bag during the fuel burning phase to move to the top of the charts, a time that was to remain unbeaten through the first new tyre runs.  He was 0.6s slower on his next lap and it looked as if his team mate could topple him, but missed it by 0.072s.  By now the track was was visibly greasy and slippery and the rookie's exuberance was getting the better of him with a couple of lurid slides at Loews and the chicane, his final lap lap being marginally slower than his earlier benchmark and at the debriefing blamed part of this on Webber being in his way.  Once again Felipe Massa put in one of his last minute performances but the Italian team failed to take pole for the first time this season.  BMW were favourites to be up at the sharp end this afternoon but they could do no better than seventh and eighth, due to Giancarlo Fisichella and Nico Rosberg put in starring performances to claim fourth and fifth with Mark Webber putting his Red Bull sixth.  David Coulthard would have been up there had he not badly blocked (unintentionally) Kovalainen in Q2 and it was in this session that Kimi Räikkönen had to retire with a bent front left wheel, when he clipped a wall at the second part of the Swimming Pool complex and had to park his Ferrari in the end at Michael Schumacher´s "parking space", Massa being lucky not to collect him.

** David Coulthard was put down to 16th on the grid after Q3 but started 13th on the grid.

It was thought that Lewis was carrying more fuel than Fernando and that the Spaniard needed to be at least 5 seconds in front of the second McLaren to win the race.  He managed to be in the lead after Lewis made his first pit stop so the calculation had been correct.  It was thought that Lewis would go longer in the second session but this was not the case and so Fernando Alonso took the win showing both his physical and mental strengths, Lewis Hamilton looking a bit ragged in the third session.  Felipe Massa managed to keep up with the two McLaren´s in the first session and could not match them in the last two as the team tried the "super soft" tyres in the last two sessions, but the Italian team reckon that in both Canada and America that they will mix it with the McLaren´s.  Giancarlo Fisichella drove a good race the circuit suiting their chassis.  Alex Wurz registered his first top eight finish since his return to Formula 1 racing with a strong seventh place with Kimi Räikkönen taking the final point after. Scott Speed took a worthy ninth place for Toro Rosso, capitalising on an excellent start and solid pace throughout the race. 

They call it the 2007 F1 "Hamilton Effect" with a 60,000 crowd at Monaco today, but today it was Fernando Alonso that was deservedly voted "Driver of the Day".  It is estimated that the race brings in a revenue of 60 million pounds to the Principality.  Might we see land reclamation here?