Formula One:Jenson Button grabbed the most important pole position of his career on another day of woe for fellow Briton Lewis Hamilton. The current championship leader made it four poles in six races this year in his Brawn GP ahead of tomorrow's Monaco Grand Prix with a stirring lap of one minute 14.902 seconds.
Button will have a resurgent Kimi Raikkonen alongside him on the front row in his Ferrari, with Brawn team-mate Rubens Barrichello directly behind him for the 78-lap race around the streets of the Principality.
As for Hamilton, his season took another turn for the worse when he slid into a tyre wall on entry into the Mirabeau in Q1, damaging his left-rear wheel and leaving him to start from 16th.
It meant for the first time in his F1 career Hamilton had failed to make Q2, missing the cut by just 0.016secs as he had at least posted one hot lap prior to his crash.
In a year when the 24-year-old has been plagued by problems on and off track, what unfolded was completely of his own making.
Hamilton had earlier this week professed rediscovering his love of F1 upon returning to the circuit where he scored such a famous win last year en route to taking the title.
After looking strong throughout practice due to a car more suited to the tight, twisty nature of the Monte Carlo track, Hamilton was potentially on course for a podium place.
But one momentary lapse of concentration as he touched the brakes a fraction too late down towards Mirabeau was enough to see him slide into a barrier, crunching the left rear and bringing him to a halt.
The session, 11 minutes old at that point, was immediately red flagged in order for Hamilton's car to be craned off the track.
The frustration within Hamilton, though, was apparent as he shook his head ruefully and flicked out his driving gloves into the tyre wall he had just hit before taking a long walk back to the garage.
An honest Hamilton confessed: "I don't know what I was thinking, I made a mistake.
"It's a shame because the weekend had been going so well. I want to apologise to the team for wasting their time.
"It's tough, but you have to learn from these mistakes and I will. I will just have to try and make up for it in the race.
"But going for a race win is over."
Hamilton's shunt would have been enough drama for that initial 20 minutes, but Felipe Massa had earlier damaged his nose after sliding and hitting a metal barrier just before La Rascasse.
Fortunately for last season's title runner-up, he had enough time to undertake repairs and qualify for Q2, with the Brazilian going on to finish fifth.
Even more remarkably was the sight of both BMW Saubers and Toyotas occupying the bottom four grid places.
Just 28 days after qualifying one and two in Bahrain, Toyota duo Jarno Trulli and Timo Glock will start 19th and 20th, with the BMW pairing of Nick Heidfeld and Robert Kubica 17th and 18th.
It meant for the first time in 24 grands prix, Force India finally made Q2, and not just one car but both as Giancarlo Fisichella and Adrian Sutil will start 13th and 15th, sandwiching the Toro Rosso of Sebastien Bourdais.
The Frenchman's Swiss team-mate in Sebastien Buemi grabbed 11th, with Renault's Nelson Piquet 12th, the latter not helped by a spin into La Rascasse.
Behind the leading front three are Red Bull's Sebastian Vettel and Massa, followed by Williams' Nico Rosberg and Heikki Kovalainen in his McLaren.
Mark Webber is eighth in his Red Bull, with the top 10 completed by Renault's Fernando Alonso and Kazuki Nakajima in his Williams.
Ironically, in an interview with Alonso in an Italian newspaper today, when asked as to who he would not want to start alongside for a race, the Spaniard said Nakajima.
A smiling Button, when asked as to what it meant to him to be on pole in Monaco, said: "They all mean a lot - I've got to stop saying that - but they do.
"It's so far been a fun weekend, with qualifying no different - it was manic. I was right on the edge on that (final) lap. As you can imagine, I'm chuffed to bits.
"The way it has been going this season, it's been fantastic, and I hope it can continue."
After claiming Ferrari's first front-row start of the season, Raikkonen remarked: "The car has been getting better and better, and in qualifying it was very good.
"It's a good result for us, especially in this place. Hopefully we can fight for victory tomorrow."
Celebrating his 38th birthday today, Barrichello said: "I thought I had the upper hand on Jenson.
"My lap was good, so his lap must have been magnificent. I really congratulate him on that. I'm sorry that on my birthday I didn't get pole, but hopefully I can make up for it tomorrow."