Lewis Hamilton romped to pole position in Monte Carlo today, beating teammate Nico Rosberg by over 3/10ths of a second. Despite winning the race in 2008, it is Hamilton’s first pole in Monaco as he seeks to stop Rosberg’s recent domination in the principality.
It’s been a long, long time. I can’t express just how happy I am.
– Hamilton
Behind the two Mercedes on the front row, Ferrari’s Sebastian Vettel dutifully took his usual third on the grid, followed by a hard charging Daniel Ricciardo in fourth for Red Bull. The Aussie delivering on his earlier promise to split the Ferrari’s on Saturday.
Danill Kvyat in the second Red Bull came in a surprise fifth ahead of Raikkonen who will start sixth in his Ferrari.
Sergio Perez lifted Force India’s hopes with a very strong seventh. Carlos Sainz took his Toro Rosso to eight, but will start last after a penalty for failure to weigh his car. This bumped Pastor Maldonado up a spot who beat his team mate this go around.
Max Verstappen starts on row five where he would have been joined by Romain Grosjean in the second Lotus, but the Frenchman had a 5 spot penalty for a gearbox change, promoting Jenson Button and McLaren-Honda to their first top 10 start of the year.
Towards the back, Williams suffered with tire warm up and traffic issues leaving Felipe Massa to start 12th and Valtteri Bottas back in a miserable 16th.
Sauber also had a poor showing with Felipe Nasr in 14th and Marcus Ericsson in 17th. Will Stevens and Roberto Merhi fill out the back of the grid with Sainz in the penalized Toro Rosso.
| Pos | Driver | Team | Time |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Hamilton | Mercedes | 1:15.098 |
| 2 | Rosberg | Mercedes | 1:15.440 |
| 3 | Vettel | Ferrari | 1:15.849 |
| 4 | Ricciardo | Red Bull | 1:16.041 |
| 5 | Kvyat | Red Bull | 1:16.182 |
| 6 | Raikkonen | Ferrari | 1:16.427 |
| 7 | Perez | Force India | 1:16.808 |
| 8 | Maldonado | Lotus | 1:16.946 |
| 9 | Verstappen | Toro Rosso | 1:16.957 |
| 10 | Button | McLaren | 1:17.093 |
| 11 | Hulkenberg | Force India | 1:17.193 |
| 12 | Massa | Williams | 1:17.278 |
| 13 | Alonso | McLaren | 1:26.632 |
| 14 | Nasr | Sauber | 1:18.101 |
| 15 | Grosjean | Lotus | 1:17.007* |
| 16 | Bottas | Williams | 1:18.434 |
| 17 | Ericsson | Sauber | 1:18.513 |
| 18 | Stevens | Manor | 1:20.655 |
| 19 | Merhi | Manor | 1:20.904 |
| 20 | Sainz | Toro Rosso | 1:16.931* |
*indicates grid penalty
Image: Mercedes AMG F1
