1961 Monaco Grand Prix

The erratic yearly variations in Monaco's qualifying regulations saw grid places guaranteed for works teams and past winners in 1961.[2] Therefore, the five works teams were awarded two places each on the grid, while Stirling Moss and Maurice Trintignant earned spots. This left nine drivers to fight over four remaining slots. A fifth opened up when Innes Ireland crashed during the final practice session, breaking his leg. Moss took pole position from Richie Ginther and Jim Clark, with Graham Hill and Phil Hill on the second row.

Ginther led Clark and Moss into the first corner but Clark quickly ran into trouble with a faulty fuel pump. Ginther dropped to third on lap 14, when Moss and Bonnier passed him in quick succession.[2] At quarter distance, Moss had an impressive 10 second lead (in the underpowered Lotus 18-Climax)[3] but the Ferraris of Hill and then Ginther found their way around Bonnier and began to close the gap. At half distance, Moss' lead was 8 seconds, and down to 3 seconds on lap 60. Ginther moved into second on lap 75 and tried to close the gap, but Moss proved able to match his lap times, despite the 156's horsepower advantage.[4]

Pos	No	Driver	Constructor	Q1	Q2	Q3	Gap
1	20	Stirling Moss	Lotus-Climax	1:41.1	1:41.4	1:39.1	—
2	36	Richie Ginther	Ferrari	1:41.0	1:39.3	1:41.7	+0.2
3	28	Jim Clark	Lotus-Climax	1:39.6	No time	No time	+0.5
4	18	Graham Hill	BRM-Climax	1:42.8	1:40.0	1:39.6	+0.5
5	38	Phil Hill	Ferrari	1:41.0	1:39.8	1:40.2	+0.7
6	40	Wolfgang von Trips	Ferrari	1:41.7	1:40.3	1:39.8	+0.7
7	26	Bruce McLaren	Cooper-Climax	1:44.7	1:41.3	1:39.8	+0.7
8	16	Tony Brooks	BRM-Climax	1:44.6	1:42.1	1:40.1	+1.0
9	2	Jo Bonnier	Porsche	No time	1:41.9	1:40.3	+1.2
10	30	Innes Ireland	Lotus-Climax	1:41.5	1:40.5	1:40.7	+1.4
11	4	Dan Gurney	Porsche	No time	1:42.7	1:40.6	+1.5
12	22	John Surtees	Cooper-Climax	1:44.3	1:41.1	2:09.1	+2.0
13	6	Hans Herrmann	Porsche	No time	1:42.4	1:41.1	+2.0
14	8	Michael May	Lotus-Climax	1:45.4	1:42.0	1:43.8	+2.9
15	32	Cliff Allison	Lotus-Climax	1:56.7	1:42.3	1:43.2	+3.2
16	42	Maurice Trintignant	Cooper-Maserati	1:47.6	1:43.2	1:42.4	+3.3
17	34	Henry Taylor	Lotus-Climax	1:45.5	1:43.7	1:42.6	+3.5
18	14	Masten Gregory	Cooper-Climax	1:45.7	1:42.7	1:42.7	+3.6
19	10	Lucien Bianchi	Emeryson-Maserati	1:44.0	1:42.9	1:44.5	+3.8
20	12	Olivier Gendebien	Emeryson-Maserati	1:45.4	1:43.7	1:45.0	+4.6
21	24	Jack Brabham	Cooper-Climax	1:44.0	No time	No time	+4.9
Source:[5]

  Drivers that had to qualify on speed: only the five fastest (four before Ireland's injury) would race.