Qualifying

Hello and welcome to our coverage of qualifying for the Monaco Grand Prix. Daniel Ricciardo's performance in FP3 suggested we could have a real fight for pole here.... will we see anyone upset the Mercs this afternoon?

Ricciardo has looked absolutely on it once again and he was just 0.050s off Hamilton's benchmark time. Don't write off Vettel either, he's looked good from what we've seen but still does not seem as smooth behind the RB10 as his younger team-mate.

Traffic was a big issue for a lot of the drivers in FP3 and could cause some big names to slip out of Q1 or Q2 this afternoon. I imagine most drivers will be keen to get a banker lap in early.

Just over fifteen minutes from qualifying and the sun is out, there's not much chance of rain spicing things up today or tomorrow so this morning's session will have been crucially important for the drivers to obtain crucial race data.

The Ferraris looked good in FP3 as well, with Raikkonen just 0.020s off Alonso on their respective supersoft runs. Perhaps an indication that Kimi is finally getting over his struggles to adapt to the F14 T

Great shot of Alonso going up towards Massenet from this morning.


© Getty Images

These torquey cars do look a real handful around the streets here, which was expected before the race, but so far we've only seen one car in a wall - Adrian Sutil in FP1, and he was able to get going again.

Siddesh V says: "Can't write off Rosberg either. Don't forget, he absolutely dominated it here last year, and he looked set to go quickest before he lost time in S3. Q3 should be easier with only 10 cars, so much less chances of traffic."

Less than 10 minutes until qualy now.

For all the talk of pole being crucial here, it's not as clear cut as that, In 59 races, the man on pole has won 26 times, with Olivier Panis winning from a record low of 14th in 1996

That said, only one man has won when not on pole in the last ten years - none other than championship leader Lewis Hamilton in 2008.

The weather could not be more perfect here, there's barely a cloud in the sky.

The current ambient temperature is 18 degrees Celsius, while the track itself is 42.

We saw lots of drivers having issues getting heat into their front tyres in FP3. I'd say we may see drivers doing longer runs in qualifying and then setting their best time on their second or third lap, as we saw the tyres getting significantly faster over the first few laps.

As he's done a few times this season, Rosberg heads straight out and will the first to leave the pits. Hamilton just behind him.

The session goes green and Rosberg heads out, followed by Hamilton and the Toro Rossos.

Everyone but the Red Bulls out on track, and we already have a few cars out on the supersofts.

The Mercs, however, are both on the soft tyres. I doubt they'll need to whack on the supersoft tyre until Q3... what a luxury.

Both Mercedes on their opening flying laps.

Rosberg crosses first and sets a benchmark of 1:25.256, and he does, going over in 1:22.873.

But there's lots of activity ahead of the Mercedes guys, lots of drivers on supersofts and Maldonado takes the benchmark for 1:20.045. Massa under two tenths off that time.

There's still more pace to come from the Mercs on the soft tyre, which Rosberg shows as he takes a huge 1.5s off Maldonado's benchmark time. And on the harder compound. Wow.

Kvyat goes over Nouvelle and asks his team if he's damaged his front wing. He dives into the pit lane.

Alonso goes fourth on the soft tyre - as Ricciardo heads out of the pit lane.

Looks like Kvyat hit the brakes a tad early on his run down to Nouvelle and that could have been a lot nastier, he's lucky to still be in the session I'd say.

Alonso hits traffic and can't improve, while Maldonado jumps ahead of Hamilton briefly, before the Merc crosses 0.2s off his team-mate.

Massa goes fourth fastest, 1.202s off Rosberg. That run was on the soft tyre.

Big call to be made from the midfield teams here is just what time they would be happy with time-wise for getting through this session.

Vettel is also out, by the way, and coming into Tabac on his flying lap.

Grosjean goes P3 on the supersofts.

Not a tidy lap from Vettel as he goes 3.610s off Rosberg, but we've seen Vettel improve a lot on his second and third laps on the soft tyre.

Ricciardo, meanwhile, goes P5 with 1:18.874.

Grsoejan can't improve on the third lap of his supersoft run, he stays third.

Ricciardo improves to third as those soft tyres continue to get better, Hamilton improves but under two tenths off Rosberg still.

That's better from the world champion. He goes 0.889s off Rosberg and that's good enough for sixth.

Hulkenberg and Perez currently in the drop zone but both out on a flying lap.

Ricciardo absolutely on it in that Red Bull. He's confidence personified behind that RB10 at the moment and he must really fancy his Q3 chances. Vettel can only improve marginally on his time to P5.

Still yet to see Kvyat emerge from the garage after his earlier spin through Nouvelle. I imagine Toro Rosso have a bit of a job to do to get him out in the next five minutes and a half.

Blue flags frantically waving for Grosjean as Hulkenberg approaches and the Force India driver is forced to bail out of his run. Plenty more of that due to come.

And out comes Kvyat, so a good job from Toro Rosso.

K-Mag goes third on the supersofts, 0.3s off Rosberg and then nearly puts his car into St Devote but keeps it out of the wall.

Ricciardo immediately pips Magnussen back into third.

Still yet to see Hulkenberg improve on his current time - he's currently down in 18th.

Good lap from Button, he goes third on 1:17.890, albeit on the supersofts. Shows how far off the pace McLaren is currently.

Raikkonen out on supersofts - interesting that Ferrari feel the need to use these now but clearly Kimi struggling on the soft. He was 15th...

...and he improves to fifth, he's just 0.224s off Rosberg's time but again, on the supersoft time rather than the softs.

Hamilton forced to back off with a slow-moving Marussia in his way through Rascasse. Chilton definitely will have some explaining to do to the stewards.

Hulk posts a 1:18.423, moving him out of the drop zone and dropping Bottas down there - but then the Williams responds.

JEV posts a 1:17.557, which puts him P1.

Yellow flags out for an incident at Mirabeau.

Massa and Ericsson coming together. Massa raises his arms, I think Ericsson just misread that situation.

Cars are gone and the flags are out... but they've come out at Portier. It's Massa again.

There's the chequered flag and what a blow for Sutil - he looked to be on a really strong lap.

The drop zone - Gutierrez, Sutil, Bianchi, Bianchi, Chilton, Kobayashi and Ericsson. The usual suspects, then.

Massa through to Q2 but doubtful he will be able to compete in it. He's stopped out there on the circuit.

Contrasting fortunes for the Toro Rossos. JEV goes first on the supersoft tyres, while Kvyat is perhaps saved by that yellow flag as he scrapes through in 16th after his spin at Nouvelle.

Seeing that Ericsson/Massa incident again, I've got to say it's the Caterham's fault. Massa left him plenty of room to sneak by at Mirabeau. Costly incident for Massa.

JEV really handy around Monaco. He'll fancy his chances of a decent grid slot after that run, he was flying. The benchmark he set a 1:17.557, putting him ahead of the Ferraris and Red Bull on their supersoft runs.

Rosberg heads straight down the pits to be the first out for Q2 again, and he goes straight out with the supersoft.

And once again, Hamilton right behind Rosberg. Both of them with that reddish strip on their tyres, we won't be seeing any more soft tyres until tomorrow now.

Q2 is green and the 15 minute session is underway.

Rosberg crosses the line to start his first flying lap as the stewards confirm they'll take a look at that incident between Ericsson and Massa.

Gutierrez also under investigation for impeding - I think that was for an incident with Hulkenberg.

Rosberg posts a 1:25.920 but slowed right down at the end of his lap to get some pace.

Hulkenberg posts the initial benchmark, a 1:17.931.

But Ricciardo now posts a 1:17.769 to take P1.

Rosberg improves to a 1:16.682, and Hamilton loses out again in the final sector and can only get within 0.035s of his team-mate in second.

Rosberg improves to a 1:16.682, and Hamilton loses out again in the final sector and can only get within 0.035s of his team-mate in second.

Ricciardo and Alonso cross in third and fourth. Alonso still on a flying lap so he clearly thinks he can get more out of these tyres.

Raikkonen very close to ending up in the barriers coming out of Tabac and he goes fourth - only for Alonso to jump ahead of him with a 1:17.325. That's just under a tenth separating the Ferraris now.

Both Mercs jump into the pits and I doubt anyone will get near to them in the remaining eight minutes.

Kvyat gets into P7, a 1:17.821, while Vettel bails out of a lap that looked pretty fast.

Currently the drop zone - Perez, Bottas, Grosjean, Maldo, Vettel and Massa - who will not be competing in this session.

Big battle between the Toro Rossos and Force India to make Q3 here I think, we're going to see one of them lose a driver or two in this session I'd say.

Vettel improves to fourth, 0.620s. Under a tenth of Ricciardo's time and 0.025s quicker than Alonso.

Only Vettel and Grosjean - who has never finished a race here - on track. Nice bit of clear air for the Lotus.

Vettel tells Red Bull they needs to sort his problem out - he complained about having "no K", which means he did that lap without any KERS. Impressive.

3:30 left in this session.

So now everyone bar the unfortunate Massa out on track, even the Mercs.

Magnussen can't improve on his 1:17.6, leaving him seventh.

Hulk has a small improvement but can't go better than ninth. Perez jumps into eighth.

Remember, those drivers making Q3 will have to start the race on these tyres, so important to look after them.

Into the final minute and a half now.

Button, JEV, Grosjean, Bottas and Maldo currently joining Massa in the drop zone.

Rosberg improves to a 1:16.465.

Hamilton goers fastest! A 1:16.345, finally seizing the initiative from Rosberg. The MErcs are getting quicker and quicker.

Bottas can't improve on P13 but gets one more lap.

JEV goes eighth!

Kvyat goes through in seventh, dropping Hulk out of the session.

Button not going all that fast....

Button bails out of the lap coming through the pit straight, does he have a problem or did he realise he wasn't going to make it? Either way, he'll start from 12th tomorrow.

The drop zone for you then - Hulkenberg (who is outqualified by Perez), Button, Bottas, Grosjean, Maldonado, Massa. Big blow for the Williams losing both guys in that session.

Two rookies in Q3 - Magnussen and Kvyat. Remember Kvyat had never even visited Monaco before this week, let alone drive around it.

He was also pretty lucky not to destroy his Toro Rosso in that earlier spin, though.

Kvyat building on his reputation even more in this session. When you watch onboards of him he drives absolutely on the limit all the time. And to think he's only 20!

Just 0.091s separating Hulkenberg from Perez, which was ultimately enough to drop him out of Q2.

Woth noting there that it was Vettel, not Ricciardo, who was best of the rest in Q2. He was about seven tenths off Hamilton, so perhaps our hopes for a battle for pole were unfounded...

Raikkonen back down to two tenths off Alonso in that session.

How much of a mental advantage will that Q2 time be for Hamilton? Both Merc drivers look like they have something extra in the tank.

Q3 has gone green again. Here we go. 12 minutes for these sessions now and they get an extra set of tyres to use now, of course.

It's Perez out on track first this time, followed by Alonso and Raikkonen.

Potential for some great nicknames of this current bunch. We've obviously got JEV but DaniRic and K-Mag are two names which I hope catch on soon... Maybe that's just me.

Interesting team-mate battle at Force India. It seemed that most had written off Perez before the season had started but he's outqualified Hulkenberg again here. Since that podium in Bahrain he's been getting better and better. Personally I expected to see Hulk and not Perez in Q3 so it's a top job from the Mexican.

Raikkonen tops the timesheets on the first runs, going fastest with a 1:18.132. That's four tenths quicker than Alonso, down in third.

Hamilton can only manage fourth on his first lap, as JEV goes fastest with an 1:18.030

Alonso is pushing that Ferrari so hard, going fastest in the middle sector and tops the timesheets - going 1.238s quicker than JEV. Raikkonen can only go second, eight tenths off Alonso now.

But Ricciardo goes fastest, before Rosberg and Hamilton cross in first and second. Frantic stuff at the moment.

Incredibly, a 0.059s separating Rosberg and Hamilton. There's going to be barely anything in it...

Red Bull says its MGU-K problem Vettel was complaining about is "intermittent". He's currently fourth, just under two tenths down on Ricciardo.

Only Perez on track currently. All the teams changing to that spare set of supersofts now...

Magnussen joins Perez on track.

Everyone is out on track now. Hold on to your hats, this is about to get a little hectic.

We've seen these cars getting the most out of their tyres after about two or three laps on the supersofts, so they'll hope to cross the chequered flag and still have time to complete their fastest lap.

Raikkonen does his fastest S1, but he's still six tenths off the Mercedes.

I estimate Raikkonen is then only driver who get a third lap here... he might just have the time to do so.

Huge understeer for Raikkonen for the final corner and he can only get sixth, 1.4s off the pace. He's got time for another lap... I don't think he'll get another actually as Rosberg starts his final flyer.

Rosberg goes off at Mirabeau!!!!

Yellow flags and that might just cost Hamilton pole.

Ricciardo can't improve of P3. Hamilton had to back off through Mirabeau and it looks like Rosberg has pole!

Well then... what will Hamilton make of that?

And that also means Ricciardo takes third, ahead of Vettel. So your top three are the same as we saw in Barcelona.

Ricciardo celebrates as he gets out of his car. This will set up an interesting moment in parc ferme.

A massive eight tenths separating Alonso and Raikkonen but they are fifth and sixth.

Kvyat, on his Monaco debut, goes ninth, behind K-Mag and JEV.

Well that was all a tad underwhelming, wasn't it.

After Schumacher in 2006 its easy to assume that could have been intentional but it certainly didn't look it, he just overcooked the entry.

I've got to say, Rosberg's celebrations seem a bit hollow there. We won't know how fast Hamilton would have been but he had a personal best through the first sector before pulling out during that lap...

Well there you go then - there's your grid for tomorrow. Please be sure to join us again at the same time for the Monaco Grand Prix!


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