- Monaco GP - Qualifying
Rosberg beats Hamilton to pole in Monaco
Nico Rosberg took pole position at the Monaco Grand Prix by less than a tenth of a second from team-mate Lewis Hamilton after a mistake on Rosberg's final run brought out yellow flags and scuppered any chance of a last-minute improvement from Hamilton.
Rosberg set the quickest time on the first runs in Q3, but as he attempted to improve on his second run he locked up and ran down the exit road at Mirabeau. Hamilton was behind him on the track and the yellow flags as Rosberg recovered meant he was unable to improve on his final attempt with time running out. The incident was investigated by the stewards but they found no wrongdoing on Rosberg's part.
Daniel Ricciardo and Sebastian Vettel secured the second row of the grid for Red Bull, with Ricciardo managing to qualify within 0.4s of Rosberg's best effort. Fernando Alonso was less than 0.2s shy of Vettel for fourth place, but had to settle for fifth ahead of team-mate Kimi Raikkonen. Jean-Eric Vergne followed up on his promising pace from the practice sessions to take seventh in the Toro Rosso ahead of Kevin Magnussen's McLaren. Daniil Kvyat took ninth on the grid on his first visit to Monaco ahead of Sergio Perez who rounded out the top ten.
Nico Hulkenberg failed to make the cut for Q3, missing out by less than 0.1s to Force India team-mate Perez. Jenson Button could only manage 12th and will be joined in the second half of the grid by Valtteri Bottas in the Williams in 13th and the two Lotuses in 14th and 15th. Felipe Massa qualified for Q2 but failed to run in the session after being taken out towards the end of Q1 by an out-of-control Marcus Ericsson.
The accident started on the run down to Mirabeau as Ericsson locked his left front, failed to get the car slowed down properly, but still tried to make the corner. He hit the barrier head on and in doing so clipped Massa and pinned him against the tyres too. The incident is set to be investigated after the session.
Kvyat only just made it out of Q1 after hitting the barriers halfway through the session. He lost the rear of his Toro Rosso under braking for the Nouvelle Chicane, initially catching the slide as it pitched him towards the barriers but then unable to stop the pendulum effect that rubbed the nose of the Toro Rosso against the barriers. Aside from the front wing, the car was largely undamaged and he was able to return to the pits for repairs and another crack at the circuit.
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