Mercedes AMG F1's Nico Rosberg scored his third consecutive pole position of the Formula 1 season at the Monaco Grand Prix after setting the fastest time in every one of the three practice sessions preceding qualifying.
The 'Silver Arrows' sealed a front row lockout at the principality on the Mediterranean coast as Rosberg's Mercedes teammate Lewis Hamilton set the second fastest time, just 0.091 seconds behind the German's time of 1:13.876.
It was Mercedes' fourth consecutive pole position this season and underlined their superiority across a wide range of circuits over a single lap. However, the pole position came in anything but a straightforward manner. Rain started to pour on the Monte Carlo circuit half an hour prior to the start of qualifying, which had been preceded by a wild third practice session where Felipe Massa, Adrian Sutil and Romain Grosjean crashed into the barriers.
Force India and Lotus were able to repair Sutil and Grosjean's cars in time for them to participate in qualifying but Massa was forced to sit out the session. The Ferrari driver also received a five-place grid penalty due to having to replace his car's damaged gearbox.
The following qualifying session started on a damp track with drivers immediately taking to the circuit in order to set 'banker laps' in order to record a time in case the conditions got worse.
The circuit did, however, progressively get drier and by the end of the second segment of qualifying, drivers had switched to the dry weather super soft Pirelli tyre.
Red Bull Racing's effort to try and get ahead of the Mercedes drivers almost looked like they would bear fruit as Sebastian Vettel and Mark Webber topped the final segment of qualifying with less than ten minutes to go.
They were relegated to the second row of the grid by Hamilton and then Rosberg, however.
In the post qualifying press conference Vettel admitted to not being good enough to take pole position but expressed relief that neither Lotus F1's Kimi Raikkonen or Ferrari's Fernando Alonso were able to get ahead of him.
It was an allusion to Mercedes' well documented problem of being able to sustain their searing one-lap pace over an entire race distance due to high rate of wear on their rear tyres.
Classification
Unofficial classification:
1) Nico Rosberg (Mercedes) – 1:13.876
2) Lewis Hamilton (Mercedes) – 1:13.967
3) Sebastian Vettel (Red Bull-Renault) – 1:13.980
4) Mark Webber (Red Bull-Renault) – 1:14.181
5) Kimi Raikkonen (Lotus-Renault) – 1:14.822
6) Fernando Alonso (Ferrari) – 1:14.824
7) Sergio Perez (McLaren-Mercedes) – 1:15.138
8) Adrian Sutil (Force India-Mercedes) – 1:15.383
9) Jenson Button (McLaren-Mercedes) – 1:15.647
10) Jean-Eric Vergne (Toro Rosso-Ferrari) – 1:15.703
11) Nico Hulkenberg (Sauber-Ferrari) – 1:18.331 (Q2)
12) Daniel Ricciardo (Toro Rosso-Ferrari) – 1:18.344 (Q2)
13) Romain Grosjean (Lotus-Renault) – 1:18.603 (Q2)
14) Valtteri Bottas (Williams-Renault) – 1:19.077 (Q2)
15) Giedo Van Der Garde (Caterham-Renault) – 1:19.408 (Q2)
16) Pastor Maldonado (Williams-Renault) – 1:21.688 (Q2)
17) Paul Di Resta (Force India-Mercedes) – 1:26.322 (Q1)
18) Charles Pic (Caterham-Renault) – 1:26.633 (Q1)
19) Esteban Gutierrez (Sauber-Ferrari) – 1:26.917 (Q1)
20) Max Chilton (Marussia-Cosworth) – 1:27.303 (Q1)
21) Jules Bianchi (Marussia-Cosworth) – No time (Q1)
22) Felipe Massa (Ferrari) – No time (Q1)
Write your Comment