A little secret emerged following the qualifying session for the 2015 Monaco GP. All weekend, Mclaren had thrown their efforts into delivering P6 on the grid for the best of their two cars. The other driver was presumably capable of P7.

Nico Rosberg locked up and took the escape road at St Devote with just a minute remaining of the Q2 session. This meant the yellow flags were waved costing Jenson Button his final flying lap.

Button remarked afterwards, “I am going to say that I would have got into Q3”. Jenson also believed in Q3 the car was capable of fighting with half the remaining field. “There was about 3 or 4 cars we could have been fighting.”

Fernando Alonso was about to begin his first flying lap in Q2 when just before turn one, his engine shut down due to an electrical failure.

“Everything went black and we couldn’t continue,” said Alonso, who now starts from P14 following a grid penalty for Romain Grosjean.

“It’s a big shame because we knew this qualifying was very important, because if we start from 15th tomorrow there are basically a train of cars and you are just following them. We have to improve for the next one.

“I think this morning the only lap I did without traffic I was third. Third was not realistic but sixth or seventh would have been possible today.

“We have to improve in every area, and the reliability too. We knew we are a bit fragile at the moment.”

The Spanish world champion is not optimistic about his chances in the race on Sunday. “I already said it on Thursday. The race finishes on Saturday and on Sunday it’s just a procession of cars. Logically it will be a bit boring”.

A P6 from a McLaren would have raised eyebrows amongst the critics of Woking, then again Red Bull Renault achieved P4 and P5. Monaco does throw up some interesting variations on the established ofder of things in F1.