Nico Rosberg will start the Monaco Grand Prix from pole position for the second year running following a dramatic qualifying session. He’ll start alongside his Mercedes AMG teammate, Lewis Hamilton, before further team pairings of Daniel Riccardo and Sebastian Vettel (Red Bull) on row two and Fernando Alonso and Kimi Raikkonen (Ferrari) claiming row three.
Rosberg set the fastest time (1:15.989) on his first run in Q3, a mere 0.59s faster than Hamilton’s best. The 2013 Monaco winner was the first of the front runners to start his second run and a lock up heading into Mirrabeau sent him down the escape road to avoid crashing into the tyre wall. That incident brought out local yellow flags meaning anyone behind had to slow through that corner leaving their second attempts thwarted.
The consipiracy theorists were quick to point out that with provisional pole already safe, and the fact that nine out of the last 10 Monaco Grands Prix have been won by the polesitter, that Rosberg had more to lose than he could gain and that his effect on the rest of the field may not have been so innocent.
A theory given oxygen by Lewis Hamilton’s icy claim in the post-quali press conference that he was “up a couple of tenths” on his final attempt at pole.
There was enough hot air in the sabotage theory to see the race stewards launch an official investigation before surmising, “The stewards examined video and telemetry data from the team and FIA and could find no evidence of any offence related to the turn 5 incident.”
We all know that Formula 1 can be a soap opera at times and the level of discussion heard following Rosberg’s innocent mistake and Hamilton’s churlish reaction is perfect proof of that.
Yet the mug punter sitting at home on the couch is the big winner, because tonight’s race is shaping up as an absolute ball tearer. Factor in the chance of some light rain on the streets of Monte Carlo and it’s pretty easy to state the race will be compulsory viewing.
2014 Monaco Grand Prix qualifying
- Nico Rosberg Mercedes AMG – 1:15.989
- Lewis Hamilton Mercedes AMG – 1:16.048
- Daniel Ricciardo Red Bull Racing – 1:16.384
- Sebastian Vettel Red Bull Racing – 1:16.547
- Fernando Alonso Ferrari – 1:16.686
- Kimi Räikkönen Ferrari – 1:17.389
- Jean-Eric Vergne Toro Rosso – 1:17.540
- Kevin Magnussen McLaren – 1:17.555
- Daniil Kvyat Toro Rosso – 1:18.090
- Sergio Perez Force India – 1:18.327
- Nico Hulkenberg Force India – 1:17.846
- Jenson Button McLaren – 1:17.988
- Valtteri Bottas Williams- – 1:18.082
- Romain Grosjean Lotus – 1:18.196
- Pastor Maldonado Lotus – 1:18.356
- Felipe Massa Williams – No time
- Esteban Gutierrez Sauber – 1:18.741
- Adrian Sutil Sauber- – 1:18.745
- Jules Bianchi Marussia – 1:19.332
- Max Chilton Marussia – 1:19.928
- Kamui Kobayashi Caterham – 1:20.133
- Marcus Ericsson Caterham – 1:21.732
Q1 107% Time 1:22.985
2014 Monaco Grand Prix – Qualifying Press Conference
Sat 24.05.14
DRIVERS
1 – Nico ROSBERG (Mercedes)
2 – Lewis HAMILTON (Mercedes)
3 – Daniel RICCIARDO (Red Bull Racing)
TV UNILATERAL
Nico, congratulations – pole for the second year in a row but perhaps not exactly the way you wanted to achieve it, with that mistake at the end?
Nico ROSBERG: No, definitely not. I thought it was over once that happened, because I thought the track would ramp up and somebody else could beat the time but no, of course, in the end I’m really, really happy that it worked out in the end. To be on pole is fantastic, at home; couldn’t be better.
Coming to you Lewis. Nico’s mistake, ironically, and the subsequent yellow flags meant that you couldn’t improve on your lap. Your feelings?
Lewis HAMILTON: Yeah, it is ironic. But it’s OK. I was up a couple tenths so it’s OK.
Daniel, coming to you, your best Monaco qualifying performance. Your chances for the race, your thoughts on the two gentlemen [beside you] who again seemed to find a bit more speed when it mattered today?
Daniel RICCIARDO: Yeah, I think all three of us don’t seem to be too pleased with ourselves. I think we left a bit on the table. We fought the car pretty hard in qualifying and trying to find a bit more from it. I thought I was getting around it OK but coming up to Turn 8 I just lost the rear completely on exit and pretty much the lap was gone after that. Frustrated, I think we could have been much closer. So a little bit disappointed.
Nico, your thoughts on what happened with Lewis and where your mistake left him. You’re close friends, you’re fighting for race wins, your fighting for pole, for world championships but there’s no question that your mistake disadvantaged him
NR: No, definitely, of course I’m sorry for Lewis. I didn’t know exactly where he was but once I was reversing I did see he was coming up. Of course that’s not great, but that’s the way it is.
Lewis, your response to that? When you’re last on the track there’s always that risk isn’t there, you’re vulnerable to something like this happening?
LH: I don’t have an answer to it.
OK. Final thought then from you Nico. You won here from pole last year, your thoughts on what will definitely be a tough 78-lap grand prix tomorrow.
NR: Yeah, well, very, very happy to start from first. It’s going to be a long race tomorrow. Also there’s supposed to be some weather coming in, so we’re not sure if it’s going to stay dry or not. Of course, [I’m in] the best place to start from and just need to try to get a good start. That’s been our weakness recently but we’ve worked on it a lot. So I’m quite confident that we’ve got the starts sorted now, so that should be OK. And then, from then on try to take care of the tyres – tyres will be very important as always in the Monaco Grand Prix, take care of those and everything should be OK.
PRESS CONFERENCE
Q: So Nico, obviously there’s only one real major talking point, tell us in detail what happened on the way down to Mirabeau?
NR: I just locked up, the outside front, I think it was, or the inside, I’m not sure, and that put me off line. I was still trying to make it but in the last moment I had to turn out because I was going to hit the tyre wall. It was close but I managed to go into the escape road.
Q: And what was going through your mind on that last lap? You, of course, had the advantage, having set the faster time first, so you knew you were knew you were up and you knew…
NR…Well that’s the whole reason why I’m… I know that I have a banker, a really good banker in there so I just try to push that little bit more and went over the edge.
Q: Lewis, give us your thoughts when you were told over the radio, or you saw the yellow flags and knew that it was all over.
LH: Not really much.
Can you elaborate?
LH: Not really much! I didn’t really think of anything. The lap was done and that was that.
Q: You said you were a couple of tenths up though, so you must have thought you were on target?
LH: I was on target, yep.
Q: And your thoughts on where you go from here. Will you be wanting to meet with the team this evening. Anything unusual before the preparation for this race?
LH: I don’t know, I’ll have a look into the data and, y’know, look where I can improve tomorrow.
Q: Daniel, your thoughts. First time you’ve driven Monaco in a competitive F1 car. Tell us about that step-up in performance, being that close to the front and having a real chance tomorrow.
DR: It was definitely nice to… yeah, again, fight at the front on the field and around here it’s a lot of fun, definitely. It’s always nice when you’ve got a quick car but around here it does feel awesome. The last lap there, went for one last push and just didn’t really get the grip back that I was hoping for and just couldn’t improve on the lap I’d done in the first part of Q3. So, it was a shame because I think in the first part of Q3 we still had a little bit more in there and, yeah, a bit frustrated to be honest.
QUESTIONS FROM THE FLOOR
Q: (Haoran Zhou – Formula One Express) Lewis, how pleased are you with your first lap in Q3 and did you leave some time on the table; if there is, where exactly?
LH: Generally the lap wasn’t too bad. Nico’s been quick all weekend. And just working away at it, one step at a time. I remember starting the last lap and said ‘this is it, this is going to be the lap’. Was two and a half tenths up and didn’t get to finish it.
Q: (Leonid Novozhilov – F1Live) Daniel Ricciardo, what you can say about the Red Bull team’s chances in this championship?
DR: The championship is – I think – a long long way away. Again, Mercedes have got a front row lock-out, I think we were definitely closer today. I felt we had a bit more of a chance there but yeah, I think the championship’s still a long way away. Firstly I think we need to win a race and then think about a championship.
One reply on “2014 Monaco GP: Qualifying report”
I seem to remember Schumacher doing a similar thing to claim pole once at Monaco