The Honda Racing F1 Team will start today's Monaco Grand Prix from the middle of the grid after a frustrating qualifying session in which both of its drivers were forced to abort their fastest laps in Q2. Jenson Button will start the 78-lap race from 12th place and Rubens Barrichello from 15th.

Until the dying moments of Q2 it had been an encouraging day for the team. Jenson was at times the fastest driver on the track following a mid-session shower during final practice, and both of the team's RA108s were competitive at the start of qualifying.

Both drivers sailed through Q1 and embarked on Q2 by setting times in thelow 1:16s, before waiting in the pits for the next nine minutes in the hope of catching the track in peak condition. It looked as if their strategy wasgoing to pay off when they each set personal bests in sector one, but they had to abort their laps when Coulthard crashed at the exit of the tunnel. 

While qualifying remained dry throughout, the weather forecast for today is wet and should the rain materialise, it will be the first wet race in the Principality since 1997, when Rubens Barrichello finished second.