Beware the backmarkers in battle for pole position

Six cars in a race of their own. A very slow race. A shiver has run through the motorhomes of the top teams here before qualifying today for the Monaco Grand Prix, because they are facing the same hurdles on the way to fighting for pole position.
Or six hurdles, if you count the twin cars from Lotus, Virgin Racing and HRT. Formula One’s new teams have discovered how hard life is at the sharp end of the world’s fastest form of motor racing and the twists and turns of Monte Carlo emphasise the problems.
For the leading teams in the sport, though, it will be a desperate race in the first qualifying session to avoid arriving on the exhaust pipes of one of the new boys.
Overtaking is tough at the best of times around here and none of that gaggle of drivers fighting for the World Championship can afford to be ejected early from qualifying because he got stuck behind a backmarker.
The new teams are doing their level best and Lotus, certainly, and Virgin, to some extent, are gradually attaching themselves to the midfield pack.
Poor, cash-strapped and seemingly hopeless HRT, though, are in for an almighty struggle. They have two Monaco Grand Prix virgins in the shape of Bruno Senna and Karun Chandhok, who will spend as much time looking in their rearview mirrors as they do straight ahead.
To illustrate how far off the pace they are, Senna set a time of 1.22.148sec in the second practice session here, 7.22sec off the fastest time, by Fernando Alonso for Ferrari. But Senna’s time was also slower than the practice times set by the top eight cars in the junior GP2 series that supports Formula One. Maybe the Brazilian with the illustrious name was in the wrong series.
Even at that speed, Senna will have his own qualifying battle ahead today. The top drivers just have to hope that it does not impinge on theirs.
Source:The Times