Hamilton: ‘Pole was there for the taking’

Mercedes drivers Nico Rosberg and defending champion Lewis Hamilton will be right behind him, and Rosberg’s qualifying time was just under two tenths slower than the one run by Ricciardo.

Ricciardo had signaled his intent with the fastest time in Thursday’s final practice and – with Hamilton’s mechanics working frantically on his auto in the Mercedes garage – the Australian zoomed up the leaderboard with a time of 1 minute, 13.622 seconds.

“They told me not to leave the pit lane”, said Hamilton, who will head into Sunday’s Monaco Grand Prix without a victory from the last eight races, and having last won here in 2008. I felt quite good, in my first push lap I felt more confident than all the other laps and also in terms of auto balance it was better, because my second sector was almost two to three tenths faster than I ever did.

And nearly a week later, Ricciardo was still complaining about the way his chances of victory slipped away, using the medium of Red Bull’s Monaco Grand Prix preview video-which, by definition, is all about looking toward the future-to ponder the events of the past. “The vehicle is great, we just have to find a way to get past the people in front”, said Verstappen.

At Renault we are informed that, after very successful tests, they are launching the new upgraded B-Spec engine at Monte Carlo.

After the race, Ricciardo voiced his excitement and eagerness to do good things in the full race.

Christian Horner: “Fantastic and thrilling to secure our first pole position since 2013, and especially delighted for Daniel in claiming his maiden pole today”.

“Absolutely. It was going to be close for sure, but I definitely think so”.

The session was red-flagged to clear his vehicle from the circuit, the luckless Brazilian condemned to start from 22nd on the grid.

Rosberg and Hamilton start 2nd and 3rd.

After the result in Spain, Kimi Raikkonen is now second in the world championship, 39 points adrift of Rosberg.

“I knew coming into the weekend that we would have a shot at it and it looked good from Thursday [after practice]”.

It was from the sublime to the ridiculous for the 18-year-old, who clipped a barrier to mess up his suspension and he ploughed into the wall.

That has been a familiar feeling for Hamilton with engine problems this season. “I don’t expect much from tomorrow”, Hamilton said.

“Maybe I underestimated the grip I had, turned a bit too early, ” said Verstappen, who was unharmed. Raikkonen will however, drop back to 11th, as he has a five-place grid penalty for a gearbox change.

Esteban Gutierrez was next up in 12th for Haas, just 0.020secs further back, with McLaren Honda’s Jenson Button 13th, ahead of the other Williams of Felipe Massa, Romain Grosjean and Kevin Magnussen in positions 14 through to 16.