Nelson Piquet Jr did little to ease concerns about his place in the
Renault F1 team by again failing to make it through the opening phase of qualifying, this time in Monaco.
The Brazilian looked ragged throughout the 20-minute session, running out of road at Ste Devote at the mid-point and then coming close to kissing the barriers at Portier as he chased a time that would lift him into the top 15. Sadly, Piquet - whose tenure of the seat alongside
Fernando Alonso has been called into question of late - he could only improve to P16 with his final run, and was then pushed back a place by
Sebastien Bourdais.
Bourdais' late effort was not enough to lift him out of the drop zone, and the Monaco F1 rookie joined Toro Rosso team-mate
Sebastian Vettel in missing the cut with the new STR3. The two Red Bull-backed machines will sandwich Piquet on Sunday's grid, with only the two
Force India cars forming the tenth and final row after neither
Adrian Sutil or veteran
Giancarlo Fisichella could muster the pace required to replicate the German's morning eighth place, albeit one set in damp conditions.
The session was headed by
Felipe Massa's 1min 15.190secs effort for
Ferrari - the Brazilian lapping just 0.050secs off the best of the weekend - but top spot changed hands on a regular basis between the leading runners, with
Heikki Kovalainen,
Lewis Hamilton and
Kimi Raikkonen forming up behind Massa.
Nico Rosberg continued to look impressive, taking fifth spot as many drivers opted to complete several laps on the same set of hard
Bridgestone tyres.
