» Sutil blames Petrov crash for missing Q3

Adrian Sutil has blamed Vitaly Petrov’s accident at Ste Devote as the reason he missed out on making the third and final stage of qualifying for the Monaco Grand Prix. This weekend marks back-to-back events in which the German driver has failed to make the final cut to determine the grid order.

Sutil will start in 12th place, behind team-mate Vitantonio Liuzzi, who had a promising run and made it into Q3, although the Italian landed up being the slowest of the final stage’s runners.

"Today was a difficult session as the car was very fast but I just couldn’t manage to get any lap in Q2," Adrian reported. "There was a lot of traffic and then the Renault crash at Turn 1 came just at the wrong time and hit me quite badly.

"I’m quite disappointed as, when I did get some clear air, my tyres were cold and the lap I did was not enough. We just missed getting to Q3 but it should still be a good race.

"P12 is right in the middle of the field and I like the circuit, the car feels good and I’m going to try my best to get some points tomorrow – you never know what can happen here."

Liuzzi (pictured), however, was revelling in his strongest dry-weather qualifying performance of the season and is well positioned to take a points’ finish tomorrow.

"It’s been a good day for us," a very happy Tonio told the media after qualifying. "Q3 was definitely the target and we got it, which is really great after the last two difficult qualifying sessions. I think we could even have got P9, as I was going quicker on the last lap, but just locked up into the chicane and lost a little bit."

[Original image via GP Update]