No luck for Lewis in Monaco

Famous for its casino, it was perhaps appropriate Monaco's Grand Prix highlighted how luck is sewn and reaped in Formula 1.

Lewis Hamilton would probably have taken pole position had Sergio Perez not crashed heavily, causing the final qualifying session to be stopped. Fast all weekend and topping the time sheets in the first two segments of qualifying, Hamilton looked a likely race winner - as in 2008, his championship year.

The other nine drivers who had made it through to Q3 set a time at the beginning of the session. Hamilton instead chose to wait for a single run at the end, hoping to save for the race a set of fresh tires (the quantity of which are restricted). But after the concussed Perez and his crumpled Sauber had been carted off, there was precious little time. Hamilton skated around to only seventh fastest. Then even this solitary lap time was disallowed because a corner had been cut.