Webber keeps pole despite shunt.

Mark Webber will start tomorrow's Monaco F3000 race from pole position, despite crashing his Super Nova Lola out of the action in the dying minutes of qualifying.

Unlike David Saelens twelve months ago, the Australian had only 46secs of the session to endure after becoming La Rascasse's final victim of the second session, but still had to watch long-time rival Justin Wilson put in a final flier.

Fortunately for the pre-season favourite, the current championship leader was stuck behind the tardy Giorgio Pantano and could not improve, leaving Webber on pole by a single tenth margin.

The pair had swapped positions during the second 45min session, with Wilson leaping to the top of the times just before one third distance, having languished down in sixth from the opening minutes. It did not take Webber long to regain the initiative, however, lowering the bar still further with his 1min 29.643secs best lap.

A lull then followed, with no-one able to find time amid the various incidents that littered an exciting second session, before the times again began to come down towards the benchmark once the red flag for Jaime Melo's stranded Durango entry had been cleared away. Pushing for the time that would secure his top spot, Webber then piled it into the barrier on the outside of Rascasse...

The Australian was not the corner's only victim, following a trend started by Wilson's Nordic team-mate Tomas Enge, and continued by Derek Hill, returnee Ricardo Mauricio, Melo and Dino Morelli. While Mauricio's impact was perhaps the most violent, Enge's did the most damage in terms of performance, as the Czech was not able to continue his push for pole, and dropped to ninth by the end of the session.

This left him trailing not only Webber and Wilson, but also Darren Manning, Prost Jr returnee Stephane Sarrazin, Sebastian Bourdais - who vaulted up the order to fourth mid-session - Patrick Friesacher, Ricardo Sperafico - like Bourdais a big second session climber - and Mauricio. Manning's late, late improvement - after a gearbox problem, fixed during the red flag period, blighted the early part of session two - came just in time to prevent him sharing row five with Coloni's Fabrizio Gollin.

Further down the order, Morelli's late crash meant that he and Enge were the only men not to find time in the second session, leaving the Irishman a disappointed 18th. He was in good company, however, as Astromega team-mate Pantano flattered to deceive in 23rd, and other notables such as Mario Haberfeld, Bas Leinders, the Ste Devote-addicted Antonio Pizzonia and Saelens could only manage eleventh, 13th, 15th and 16th respectively. Haberfeld tangled with Joel Camathias at Portier, strangling his session, while Leinders proved unique among the crashers in removing a corner at Ste Devote.

Pizzonia just used the first corner run-off area to practice his spin turns, but was later to be stripped of his fastest time, demoting him a further two places to 17th, and promoting last year's pole man Saelens one position.

Full times to follow shortly....

Leading qualifiers - Monaco F3000.

1. Mark Webber Super Nova 1min 29.643secs
2. Justin Wilson Nordic +0.178secs
3. Darren Manning Arden +0.376secs
4. Stephane Sarrazin Prost Jr +0.376secs
5. Sebastian Bourdais DAMS +0.394secs
6. Patrick Friesacher Red Bull Jr +0.462secs
7. Ricardo Sperafico Petrobras Jr +0.732secs
8. Ricardo Mauricio Red Bull Jr +0.791secs
9. Tomas Enge Nordic +0.843secs
10. Fabrizio Gollin Coloni +1.030secs