Mercedes driver Rosberg delivered the fastest lap in qualifying ahead of defending champion Vettel of Red Bull. PHOTO: AFP
Nico Rosberg claimed pole position for today’s 71st Monaco Grand Prix with a brilliantly-judged drive in capricious conditions as he and Mercedes teammate Lewis Hamilton locked out the front row of the grid.
The 27-year-old German delivered a fastest lap of one minute and 13.876 seconds to outpace 2008 world champion Hamilton by 0.091 seconds.
It was Rosberg’s third successive pole, the team’s fourth in a row and the fourth of his career, and it set him up perfectly to attempt to become the first son of a victorious former Monaco winner to triumph on the streets of the Mediterranean principality.
His father Keke Rosberg, watching the action from the paddock, won the race 30 years ago in 1983.
“You know, it’s always nice to hear statistics like that,” Rosberg junior said. “But it doesn’t change much. We’re improving step by step, but there are still a lot of questions remaining. It’s still our weakness. But we will make the best of it and who knows.”
Hamilton, who has been outpaced by Rosberg in all three practice sessions as well as qualifying, said, “I’ve been struggling all weekend and my pace has been slacking. I’ve struggled with the car and this is the first time that’s happened since 2005. It’s been a difficult weekend so I’m happy to have been able to lock out the front row for the team. It’s been a massive improvement for me.”
On a day when two German clubs met in football’s European Champions League final, it was perhaps fitting that Mercedes dominated as they seek to become the first works outfit to win in Monaco since 1937. The Mercedes men qualified first and second ahead of defending triple world champion Sebastian Vettel, who was third ahead of his Red Bull teammate Mark Webber.
Finn Kimi Raikkonen, the 2007 champion, was fifth for Lotus ahead of two-time champion Fernando Alonso of Ferrari, Mexican Sergio Perez of McLaren and German Adrian Sutil of Force India.
Briton Jenson Button, the 2009 world champion, qualified ninth in the second McLaren ahead of Frenchman Jean-Eric Vergne of Toro Rosso.
Alonso’s Ferrari colleague Brazilian Felipe Massa did not take part after mechanics failed to repair his car in time following a high-speed crash in the morning that his team attributed to ‘driver error’.
Published in The Express Tribune, May 26th, 2013.
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