Lewis Hamilton indulged in some high-speed exorcism when he won pole for the Monaco Grand Prix for the first time in nine attempts and beat his rival and team-mate Nico Rosberg to lay the ghost of last year’s momentous happenings at Formula One’s most celebrated setting.
When Rosberg blocked Hamilton’s attempt to secure pole here a year ago a rivalry that was already intense became something darker. An animus entered the relationship between the former friends and the bitter narrative was maintained until the last race of the season, when Hamilton secured his second world championship in Abu Dhabi.
A quick paddock poll last year found roughly 80% of F1 folk were agreed: Rosberg had deliberately sabotaged Hamilton’s chances of making it to the front of the grid, so crucial in Monaco where overtaking is more difficult than any other grand prix.
The connection between these noisy neighbours, who both live within minutes of the circuit, has ruptured and has never been the same again, despite the cordialities of pre-season. A true friendship has been lost and is unlikely to repair itself before their racing days have ceased.
What happened in qualifying, when Hamilton finished three-tenths quicker than the other Mercedes, could have a crucial bearing on the pattern of this season. We saw the momentum swing from one driver to the other last year and if Rosberg had managed to follow his victory at the Circuit de Catalunya with another triumph on Sunday Hamilton’s indomitability would have been broken.
That could still happen, of course. Rosberg is strong on the principality’s street circuit and is aiming to become only the fourth driver after Graham Hill, Alain Prost and Ayrton Senna to win three straight races at Monaco. But the force is with Hamilton, who is looking for his fourth win in six races this season.
Hamilton had been beaten by Rosberg in qualifying in Monaco for the past two years but he has looked strong this week and his form did not falter. Rosberg, though, twitched in the face of battle. Twice he locked up and ran wide at Sainte Devote, once at the end of Q2 and again in Q3 as he attempted to beat Hamilton’s time. Hamilton’s time was 0.342 seconds quicker than his rival’s.
They were followed home by Sebastian Vettel, the Red Bulls of Daniel Ricciardo and Daniil Kvyat, Kimi Raikkonen and Sergio Perez.
“It’s been a long, long time,” Hamilton, who leads the drivers’ championship by 20 points, said of clinching pole. “It wasn’t an easy session for me. I didn’t have rhythm until the last two laps. Only half the job is done. But it’s a very special day. This track is so hard. It is difficult to express how difficult it is. In our session we had some problems with tyres and traffic. It was not easy, so it makes it even more special.”
He added that his sole objective this weekend was to mend some weaknesses he had perceived in his driving at this circuit. “I worked so hard for this that I had to get that lap,” he said. A subdued Rosberg was in his shoulder-shrugging mood. “I had a good rhythm starting off but then lost touch close to the end.” And he shrugged again.
Toto Wolff, Mercedes’ head of motorsport, added: “Lewis was pretty much on fire from Friday. In the first part of qualifying Nico had the edge but then he lost his braking in Q2 and it swung back to Lewis in the lap that mattered.”
This is Mercedes’ third straight lock-out at Monaco, though Ferrari expect to be closer in race mode. Ricciardo’s fourth place represented Red Bull’s best qualifying performance of the season and he might have finished ahead of Vettel but for a miscommunication with his team.
McLaren failed once again in their ambition to get both their cars into the top-10 shootout. Neither Fernando Alonso nor Jenson Button got there. Alonso had a suspected electrical problem on the first lap of the second session and stuttered to an inglorious halt. He will start 14th; Button will start 11th. “That’s seriously painful,” he groaned. “We were on for a reasonable result here.”
He claimed that he would have made Q3 but for the yellow flags that came out after Rosberg had run wide.
There was also misfortune for Carlos Sainz, who will start from the pit lane for failing to stop to have his car weighed during Q1. And for Valtteri Bottas, in his Williams, who was a surprise casualty in Q1. But it is the other end of the grid that will command attention on Sunday. The start will represent Rosberg’s best chance to get past Hamilton. After that you can go and put the kettle on.
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