Rosberg rides luck to shade Hamilton for Monaco pole

MONACO: Nico Rosberg rode his luck to take a controversial sixth pole of his career and his second in succession at the Monaco Grand Prix on Saturday as Mercedes swept the front row of the grid for Sunday’s 78-laps race.
The 28-year-old German, who lies three points behind his Mercedes team-mate Lewis Hamilton in the drivers’ title race, lost control of his car and ran down the escape road at Mirabeau on his final flying lap.
Race officials later announced they were investigating the incident, which left Hamilton fuming.
He had to abort his effort for that lap as yellow flags were waved — a signal that slowed the field behind him and wrecked Hamilton’s hopes of clocking an improved lap to steal pole in the final seconds.
Hamilton was visibly upset at the way his hopes of claiming pole were scuppered by his teammate, appearing stony faced in the post-qualifying press conference.
The two Mercedes had dominated the session and will start the race ahead of the two Red Bulls with Australian Daniel Ricciardo qualifying third ahead of his more experienced and illustrious teammate, four-time defending champion Sebastian Vettel.
Two-time former champion Fernando Alonso was fifth ahead of his Ferrari team-mate Kimi Raikkonen, the 2007 champion, Frenchman Jean-Eric Vergne of Toro Rosso and Danish rookie Kevin Magnussen of McLaren.
Another rookie, Russian Daniil Kvyat in the second Toro Rosso was ninth and Mexican Sergio Perez was 10th for Force India.
Rosberg’s best lap of one minute and 15.989 left him just 0.059 seconds ahead of Hamilton as the two Mercedes men demonstrated they are the class of the field following five straight wins this year.
On a perfect azure afternoon of clear skies and bright sunshine, Q1 saw Russian rookie Daniil Kvyat lost control and, in a spin as he came out of the tunnel, lost the nose section of his car as it clipped the barriers.
A later accident involved Swedish rookie Magnus Ericsson in a Caterham, who collided with luckless Felipe Massa’s Williams at Mirabeau, left the track blocked in the closing minutes.
Williams, suffering more bad luck, were unable to retrieve their car for repairs during the session, which meant that the innocent Massa — who seemed to pull aside to give the Swede more room — would take no further part in the action.
The first mini-session saw an early exit for the usual suspects as the Sauber, Marussia and Caterham drivers were eliminated in pairs, having qualified in positions 16 to 22 at the back of the grid.
The second session, Q2 saw 2009 champion Jenson Button failed to make the cut for McLaren while his team-mate Danish rookie Kevin Magnussen went through in eighth, one place down on Monaco debutant Kvyat, who had never previously raced in Monaco in any category, but who recovered superbly following his Q1 accident to go through in seventh.
The eager Perez was first out with the rest following rapidly in the battle for pole, Kvyat and Magnussen deserving their warm reception from the crowd as they made light of their rookie status.
On the first runs, Rosberg produced a smooth 1:15.989 to outpace his team-mate by 0.059 seconds, a blink in time, but potentially critical for a race where pole position delivers such an advantage.
In their wake, Ricciardo and Vettel put their Red Bulls ahead of the two Ferraris as the contest intensified toward a dramatic finale in which Hamilton faced the challenge of cutting his own best lap time.