Raikkonen was second fastest to Button, a mere two-hundredths of a second slower with around 0.1s-worth less fuel - definitely slower, but by a margin that would be overcome by a slight missed apex or momentary locked brake, in other words.
Had Raikkonen been able to start from pole, there is every chance he could have converted that to victory, given how difficult it is to pass here.
Ferrari were quick enough in Monaco that Brawn's race day victory effectively hung on Button's near-perfect qualifying lap.
Button got his lucky break in the race when team-mate Rubens Barrichello, following close behind in second, and forming a barrier between Button and Raikkonen, suffered graining tyres 10 laps into the race.
The Brazilian's pace slowed dramatically but he stayed out for a further five laps. Given that Raikkonen couldn't pass, it gave Button a margin of 13 seconds, which he was able to simply monitor for the rest of the afternoon.
Barrichello was always there to thwart Raikkonen's efforts at getting in the fast laps in clear space needed to leapfrog past into second.
Felipe Massa in the other Ferrari set the race's fastest lap and he, too, might have leapfrogged Barrichello - had he not been stuck behind the newly refuelled and therefore slower Button when he needed to be banging in the fast low-fuel laps.
In determining the result, their positioning on the track at the critical phases of the race was much more significant than any performance difference between the two cars.
That positioning was a result of the very small but decisive pace advantage of Button's Brawn in qualifying.
Asked where that advantage was coming from, Massa said: "I think they have just a little more downforce than us. That's not hugely important at Monaco but I think it did allow them to use their tyres more flexibly in qualifying.
"That extra little bit of downforce allowed them to be able to do two-lap runs, with their fastest time coming on the second lap.
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