[2] Reigning World Champion and 2009 race winner Jenson Button went into the Monte Carlo round with a three-point lead over Ferrari's Fernando Alonso and a ten-point margin over Sebastian Vettel.

Following concerns over the tight and narrow nature of the circuit combined with new teams Virgin Racing, Lotus and Hispania being between three and six seconds slower than the established teams over the course of a lap and therefore creating a very real possibility for a slower car compromising the flying laps of their faster counterparts, the suggestion was put forth to split the first session of qualifying into two groups of twelve cars, similar to the format used by the IndyCar Series.

[3] The FIA later set a maximum allowable lap time for qualifying, with any car that is slower than one minute and twenty-two seconds between the first and last corners facing penalties from the stewards.

[8] As his team was unable to find the flaw in the chassis, he competed in Monaco with a damaged car, producing lap times two seconds slower than his team-mate Karun Chandhok in free practice.

Fernando Alonso was the fastest driver and the only man to break the 1 min 16 sec barrier, though second-placed Sebastian Vettel set a time of 1:16 even, with Renault's Robert Kubica one hundredth of a second behind him.

There were no major incidents, though the anticipated traffic problem manifested on several occasions, with the Ferrari of Felipe Massa impeding Kovalainen and his Lotus as the Finn was completing a flying lap.

Renault's Kubica was the fastest of the session, edging out Alonso's Ferrari team-mate Massa by four hundredths of a second and Spanish Grand Prix winner Mark Webber third.

His time was fast enough for fourteenth although Nico Hülkenberg, Adrian Sutil and Sébastien Buemi all qualified ahead of Petrov, with Pedro de la Rosa, Kamui Kobayashi and Jaime Alguersuari also being eliminated.

He also parked his car on the exit to the pit lane, meaning Bruno Senna had to cross the yellow line to avoid the McLaren after completing his pitstop, due to this he did not receive a penalty.

As Webber began to solidify his lead, Rubens Barrichello suffered a suspension failure due to a loose drain cover at the top of Beau Rivage, and the Brazilian's out-of-control Williams hit the barrier and spun around, coming to a halt facing the wrong way in the middle of the track at Massanet.

It was later discovered that the loose manhole cover had been the cause of Barrichello's accident, being lifted up as the car passed over it, striking the left rear wheel and breaking the suspension.

The safety car would again be deployed during the 75th lap and remain in place until the race's final corner when Jarno Trulli and Hispania's Karun Chandhok collided.

Webber went on to win a race with all but a few seconds of the last few laps run under safety car conditions during which Vitaly Petrov retired his Renault with brake problems.

Replays showing Schumacher's manoeuvre were shown shortly after the race and controversy started with Ferrari claiming that overtaking on the last lap was not permitted, according to rule 40.13, which states: "If the race ends whilst the safety car is deployed it will enter the pit lane at the end of the last lap and the cars will take the chequered flag as normal without overtaking.

"[13] Mercedes principal Ross Brawn produced documents to show that the restart had taken place (thus the 40.13 rule was not applicable in his opinion) and Schumacher's position beyond the safety car line before the overtaking.

The stewards, including 1996 champion Damon Hill, held an enquiry after the race, and gave Schumacher a 20-second penalty for illegally passing Alonso, demoting him to 12th position.

Most sanctioning bodies require the safety car to lead the leader across the finish line on the final lap in case of a yellow chequer.