Sebastian Vettel and Mark Webber will line up third and fourth respectively for tomorrows Monaco Grand Prix after the duo finished marginally behind pole winner Nico Rosberg and Lewis Hamilton.

With rain falling across the Principality in the build-up to qualifying and no previous running on wet tyres, Q1 was a tricky prospect with perfect timing required as a dry line began to form and the best laps all came in the final minutes.

Both Seb and Mark made it through without any dramas, the champion in seventh place and his team-mate in 13th spot. The same could not be said for Force Indias Paul Di Resta who was caught out at the end and slipped to 17th position and out of the remainder of the session. He was not the only regular top 10 starter to go out. Felipe Massa too failed to progress, though in the Brazilians case it was because Ferrari could not repair the car he had crashed in final practice in time to take part. Hell start from the back of the grid tomorrow.

Q2 was more of the same. With the track improving throughout, the second segment was about who would make the switch from inters to dry tyres first and then who would time his run on the supersoft tyres best. Mark was an early adopter and held P1 briefly before being eclipsed. Hed done enough though and his eventual seventh place was good enough to make the top-10 shootout. Seb finished the segment in P1.

Again, though, some were caught out. This time it was Romain Grosjean - the Lotus driver left shaking his head in bafflement as he slipped to 13th in the final seconds of the 15-minute segment. It left the way open for compatriot Jean-Eric Vergne to profit and the Toro Rosso driver made it through to Q3 for the first time.

When it came down to the final 10 minutes, however, the form book took over, and as it has been at the last three races it was Mercedes who were quickest, with the Red Bulls third and fourth. Kimi Raikkonen will start fifth, while Fernando Alonso will line up sixth. Row four will be filled by Sergio Perez and Adrian Sutil and the top 10 was completed by Jenson Button in ninth and Vergne in tenth.

Afterwards, Sebastian admitted that he had not delivered the perfect final run in Q3. I was a bit annoyed with my flying lap, he said. I think I maybe pushed a bit too hard here and there. The start of the lap wasnt bad, but also it wasnt great; with hindsight I should have gone for two flying laps at the start of Q3 and not one, but I decided for that. I thought the tyres would be good enough for the first lap. I have been struggling all weekend, but in the end it was tight. Pole was probably possible today, but we are third. I think with the Mercedes in front, it was expected that they would be strong. We have a good race car and should be able to do well from there tomorrow.

Mark, meanwhile, said that the result was a good one, considering how the rain before the opening session could have easily led to mishaps. Yeah Im pretty happy with that, he said. Its very easy to be towards the back when you have a disruptive session with those conditions, but we managed to survive all the tricky sections and put together a reasonably tidy effort. You can always look at timings later and think you could have done things differently, but in the heat of the moment you make the decision as to what you think is right and overall it wasnt too bad. He added. The conditions are changing and the tyres are tricky, so starting on the second row here is not bad. Its a long race and a lot of strategy can unfold, so well see what we can do from there.

For Team Principal Christian Horner the row-two lockout gives the team a good platform for the race tomorrow. A very strong team performance with both cars lining up on the second row of the grid in what was a very tight qualifying session, he said. Sebastian put in a very quick lap at the beginning of Q3 and unfortunately didnt quite have enough to hold on to the pole, but nonetheless a great performance from him and from Mark who once again has done a great job in Monte Carlo.