Monaco GP: Nico Rosberg beats Lewis Hamilton to pole despite error

The German was the faster of the Mercedes duo on the first runs in the Q3 top 10 shootout, shading Lewis Hamilton by 59 thousandths of a second.

He then made a mistake on his final flier, locking up and sliding up the escape road at Mirabeau.

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But as Hamilton, who was behind Rosberg on track, was slow in the middle sector of his final lap because of the resulting yellow flags, the Briton was unable to attempt to defeat Rosberg.

Daniel Ricciardo continued his strong weekend by beating Red Bull team-mate Sebastian Vettel to third, with the Ferraris of Fernando Alonso and Kimi Raikkonen claiming the third row.

Jean-Eric Vergne qualified seventh after winning his personal battle with Monaco GP debutant Kevin Magnussen.

Nico Rosberg qualifying incident

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Rosberg allowed to keep Monaco pole

The second Toro Rosso driver, Daniil Kvyat, impressed by surviving a crash in Q1 at the chicane that ripped off his front wing by making it to Q3 in ninth, ending up ahead of Sergio Perez.

Jenson Button, winner in Monaco in 2009, was the biggest-name casualty in Q2, ending up 12th behind Force India's Nico Hulkenberg.

Williams driver Valtteri Bottas was 13th, with Romain Grosjean and Pastor Maldonado behind him as the Lotus team continued to have a difficult weekend.

Felipe Massa ended up only 16th after being unable to participate in Q2.

The Williams driver let Caterham driver Marcus Ericsson through at Mirabeau in the closing stages of Q1, but the Swede had to correct a rear-end slide under braking for the right-hander and hit Massa, who was holding a wide line.

Both cars nosed into the barrier and neither was able to get back to the pits, although Massa did get his car going again but then ground to a halt.

The tangle will be investigated by the stewards after the session.

This incident meant that the battle to avoid elimination in Q1 was interrupted and there were few late changes, with Sauber pairing Esteban Gutierrez and Adrian Sutil ending up 17th and 18th.

Marussia pairing Jules Bianchi and Max Chilton filled the 10th row, with the Caterhams of Kamui Kobayashi and Ericsson at the back.

The stewards are also investigating several cases of impeding from Q1, one involving Perez and Gutierrez and the other involving Maldonado and Kvyat.

Pos Driver                Team                  Time       Gap    
 1. Nico Rosberg          Mercedes              1m15.989s         
 2. Lewis Hamilton        Mercedes              1m16.048s  +0.059s
 3. Daniel Ricciardo      Red Bull-Renault      1m16.384s  +0.395s
 4. Sebastian Vettel      Red Bull-Renault      1m16.547s  +0.558s
 5. Fernando Alonso       Ferrari               1m16.686s  +0.697s
 6. Kimi Raikkonen        Ferrari               1m17.389s  +1.400s
 7. Jean-Eric Vergne      Toro Rosso-Renault    1m17.540s  +1.551s
 8. Kevin Magnussen       McLaren-Mercedes      1m17.555s  +1.566s
 9. Daniil Kvyat          Toro Rosso-Renault    1m18.090s  +2.101s
10. Sergio Perez          Force India-Mercedes  1m18.327s  +2.338s
                          Q3 cut-off time:      1m17.755s  **     
11. Nico Hulkenberg       Force India-Mercedes  1m17.846s  +1.492s
12. Jenson Button         McLaren-Mercedes      1m17.988s  +1.634s
13. Valtteri Bottas       Williams-Mercedes     1m18.082s  +1.728s
14. Romain Grosjean       Lotus-Renault         1m18.196s  +1.842s
15. Pastor Maldonado      Lotus-Renault         1m18.356s  +2.002s
16. Felipe Massa          Williams-Mercedes                        
                          Q2 cut-off time:      1m18.616s  *        
17. Esteban Gutierrez     Sauber-Ferrari        1m18.741s  +1.184s
18. Adrian Sutil          Sauber-Ferrari        1m18.745s  +1.188s
19. Jules Bianchi         Marussia-Ferrari      1m19.332s  +1.775s
20. Max Chilton           Marussia-Ferrari      1m19.928s  +2.371s
21. Kamui Kobayashi       Caterham-Renault      1m20.133s  +2.576s
22. Marcus Ericsson       Caterham-Renault      1m21.732s  +4.175s
                                                                  
107 per cent time: 1m22.985s                                      
* Gap to fastest in Q1                                            
** Gap to fastest in Q2