2014 MONACO GP: NICO ROSBERG CLINCHES POLE, LEWIS FURIOUS

Mercedes driver Nico Rosberg has clinched his sixth career pole position, one more than his famous father Keke. The German was the faster of the Mercedes duo on the first runs in the Q3 top 10 shootout, shading Lewis Hamilton by 59 thousandths of a second. He then made a mistake on his final flier, locking up and sliding up the escape road at Mirabeau. But as Hamilton, who was behind Rosberg on track, was slow in the middle sector of his final lap because of the resulting yellow flags, the Briton was unable to attempt to defeat Rosberg. Daniel Ricciardo continued his strong weekend by beating Red Bull team-mate Sebastian Vettel to third, with the Ferraris of Fernando Alonso and Kimi Raikkonen claiming the third row.

Nico Rosberg: "I’ve felt really good in the car for the whole weekend and to get pole again here in Monaco is fantastic. The team has done a great job again this weekend because our performance is so strong even on this unique circuit – which shows that we have developed a really strong chassis and engine package for this season. I did a really great banker lap at the beginning in Q3 but Lewis was very close, so I gave it another try and pushed a bit more, unfortunately just a bit too much over the limit. I locked up the rears and then the fronts offline at the bumpy downhill part of the track before turn five but I just managed to get down the escape road. I have apologised to Lewis for having hindered the opportunity for him to improve his lap time. Now I will look ahead and forward to the race. I need to have a good start and I hope for a strong race with a good strategy."

Lewis Hamilton: "I’d had a good weekend so far and I’ve just been concentrating on my own performance and working on the pace one step at a time. Qualifying was going well today but in hindsight, I should have nailed my best lap before the end of Q3. This is Monaco and there is always the risk of yellow flags here. Of course, I’m extremely disappointed that I didn’t get to finish my lap as I was a couple of tenths up. That’s motorsport. I have to get the best possible start and then see what we can do from there."

Daniel Ricciardo: " think I could have been closer to the front today and I don’t like it when that’s the case. I made a mistake in the last run in Q3; we were up and I thought it was going well, but then I made a mistake and lost the time I had made. Anyways, there’s no room for excuses here so I’ll just have to learn for next time. I would be disappointed not to finish on the podium tomorrow. I think we have the pace to hang with Mercedes, so hopefully we can at least get one of them off the line and maybe do something with strategy and give ourselves a real chance of taking a win."

 P.    DRIVER             TEAM           TIME        GAP  
 1. Nico Rosberg        Mercedes AMG   1:15.989        
 2. Lewis Hamilton      Mercedes AMG   1:16.048   +  0.059
 3. Daniel Ricciardo    Red Bul        1:16.384   +  0.395
 4. Sebastian Vettel    Red Bull       1:16.547   +  0.558
 5. Fernando Alonso     Ferrari        1:16.686   +  0.697
 6. Kimi Raikkonen      Ferrari        1:17.389   +  1.400
 7. Jean-Eric Vergne    Toro Rosso     1:17.540   +  1.551
 8. Kevin Magnussen     McLaren        1:17.555   +  1.566
 9. Daniil Kvyat        Toro Rosso     1:18.090   +  2.101
10. Sergio Perez        Force India    1:18.327   +  2.338
    Q2 Најбрзо време: Lewis Hamilton 1:16.354             
11. Nico Hulkenberg     Force India    1:17.846   +  1.492
12. Jenson Button       McLaren        1:17.988   +  1.634
13. Valtteri Bottas     Williams       1:18.082   +  1.728
14. Romain Grosjean     Lotus          1:18.196   +  1.844
15. Pastor Maldonado    Lotus          1:18.356   +  2.002
16. Felipe Massa        Williams       no time set
    Q1 Најбрзо време: Nico Rosberg 1:16.682               
17. Esteban Gutierrez   Sauber         1:18.741   +  1.184
18. Adrian Sutil        Sauber         1:18.745   +  1.188
19. Jules Bianchi       Marussia       1:19.332   +  1.775
20. Max Chilton         Marussia       1:19.928   +  2.371
21. Kamui Kobayashi     Caterham       1:20.133   +  2.576
22. Marcus Ericsson     Caterham       1:21.732   +  4.175
    107% време: 1:22.985