Nico Rosberg has managed to make it a hat-trick of Pole positions, Mercedes' fourth in row, in their latest bid to win a second race this season. For the second race in a row, it will be a Mercedes front row lockout as Lewis Hamilton was also on hand to show off the Mercedes' one lap pace.
It was a changeable qualifying session but it did end with the top ten all on the super soft tyres, after originally starting with the intermediates on the wet Monaco track. Sebastian Vettel was fastest in Q2 but he could only manage third alongside his Red Bull team mate, Mark Webber. Kimi Raikkonen will start fifth with Fernando Alonso sixth after saying the Ferraris will soon be dominating the Red Bulls earlier in the week.
It turned out to be a fantastic session for McLaren as Sergio Perez managed to get himself up to seventh with Jenson Button ninth. Adrian Sutil sits in between the McLarens to end Force India's day on a happier note than they started off with. Jean-Eric Vergne manages to round up the top ten in the Toro Rosso.
The first man in Q2 to change from intermediates to super-softs was Giedo Van Der Garde with five minutes and ten seconds remaining of the session. Not many people thought that they would be following from a Caterham, but after Van Der Garde emerged with the slick tyres, so did everyone else. It was enough for the Caterham to go 15th in their first appearance in Q2 this season. After being quickest in Q1, Pastor Maldonado couldn't find any pace and he will now start 16th.
Nico Hulkenberg was the one to miss out on Q3 and he will now start in a Toro Rosso sandwich with Vergne ahead of him and Daniel Ricciardo, in 12th, behind him. After a nightmare and very short Q1, Romain Grosjean couldn't find any real pace in Q2 and will start 13th ahead of Valtteri Bottas in the other Williams.
The reason for Grosjean having a nightmare Q1 was because the Lotus garage was hard at work trying to fix the Frenchman's car after his collision in practice. Lotus just about managed to get Grosjean out with three minutes and 30-seconds left to spare. Unfortunately, Felipe Massa wasn't so fortunate as Ferrari were trying to build his new car from scratch. They couldn't get the Brazilian out and, if allowed which he should be, he will start at the back of the grid.
As the track was wet for Q1, there were many yellow flags for people missing corners and going down the escape holes. The first yellow flag came just two minutes in to the session and it was because Jules Bianchi had suffered an air box fire. Unfortunately, the Marussia was unable to continue and he will now start 21st tomorrow. This meant that, for the first time this season, Max Chilton was able to out-qualify Bianchi, albeit to start 20th. Esteban Gutierrez continues his miserable debut season and will start 19th with Charles Pic in the second Caterham 18th.
The biggest shock in Q1 saw Force India lose Paul Di Resta. There was a clear tactical error made by the team and it was one that Di Resta is less than impressed with. The Scot will now start 17th tomorrow.
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