After qualifying, McLaren looked to be on the back foot. Lewis Hamilton and Heikki Kovalainen had qualified third and fourth, which was hardly a disgrace in itself, but one and two were the Ferraris, with Felipe Massa once again ahead of World Champion Kimi Raikkonen. Given the fact that overtaking is nigh impossible at Monaco, that looked like a Maranello lock-out.
Or maybe not, for this particular year the Cote d’Azur was hardly bathed in sunshine, and the forecast for race weekend was dire. Saturday at least allowed qualifying to be run on a dry track, but on race morning the rain beat down steadily, and although it stopped before the race got underway, back it came periodically throughout the afternoon, and the circuit was never less than treacherous. In those circumstances, anything was possible – and in the end Hamilton conclusively won the Monaco Grand Prix.