Van der Garde stripped of Monaco pole

Giedo van der Garde has been demoted to sixth place on the grid for Saturday’s Feature Race, with the Barwa Addax driver being penalized for a collision with Carlin's Oliver Turvey. The Dutchman had originally snatched pole with a time of 1:21.781, but the decision means iSport International’s Sam Bird inherits the top spot.

Romain Grosjean and Marcus Ericsson were also handed grid drops, with both men running into the back of their team-mate’s cars. The 2011 GP2 Asia Champion will start from the back, while Ericsson has been pushed down to 20th from 15th place.