Rosberg leads Mercedes front row at Monaco

F1 Grand Prix, GP Monaco, Monte Carlo Circuit

Nico Rosberg and Lewis Hamilton qualified on the front row for the Monaco Grand Prix. The Mercedes AMG duo confirmed the team's dominance in qualifying and will start ahead of both Red Bulls. Raikkonen is 5th and Alonso starts from 6th.

Half an hour ahead of the start of qualifying, a shower made the entire track wet, complicating things further for the teams who already have to worry about traffic and possible accidents. Cars are therefore in a queue at the end of the pitlane to get started right away, with everybody doing their first runs on the intermediate tyres.

Jules Bianchi however didn't get far, as by turn 3 his engine gave up, causing a yellow flag that lasted for more than a lap, preventing the cars on track at that moment from setting a competitive lap on the first attempt.

As more rain falling and even more is expected, everybody is out, with Webber emerging on top after 6 minutes, faster than Vergne, Alonso, Button, Vettel, Pic, Riccardo and Maldonado. Massa and Grosjean meanwhile are still in the pits as their teams are repairing their cars after crashes in FP3.

At the halfway mark, Maldonado posts the fastest time as the track is getting dryer. The times are tumbling quickly though, also thanks to the fuel loads going down. Most cars are still running since the first moments of the session, increasing on track time to reduce the chance of getting caught out. Both Toro Rosso cars are doing surprisingly well in the damp conditions, consistently posting times in the top 10.

13 minutes into the session, Vettel improves to 1:25.352, at that time more than a second faster than anyone else. Webber soon matches that with exactly the same laptime after which Rosberg takes 5 tenths off of that time ten seconds later.

In the final minutes, Grosjean finally gets out and laps the track, immediately posting the fastest time. Massa's car on the other hand did not get repaired in time, so he will have to start from the back of the grid.

As time ran out, Giede van der Garde gets through to Q2 while Di Resta is out, along with Pic, Gutierrez, Chilton, Bianchi and Massa.

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Q2 is again marked by some rain, hence all drivers are again on the intermediates. Rosberg is the first to set a time, but its Webber who is fastest after 4 minutes. Hulkenberg is second, ahead of Vettel, Maldonado, Rosberg, Vergne, Hamiton, Ricciardo and Alonso. 1 minute later both McLarens are topping the timesheet, with Perez ahead of Button.

4 minutes from the end, drivers start to switch to supersoft slick tyres, with at the moment Hulkenberg, Raikkonen, Bottas, Alonso, Sutil and Ricciardo eliminated. Alonso actually gave up on his final lap on inters to come in and have a chance to do two laps on the dry weather tyres at the end of Q2.

The gamble of Alonso and Ferrari paid off in the end and it didn't seem easy for the Ferrari driver to get through to Q3 as he very much needed the second flying lap to make it through. Eliminated are now Hulkenberg in 11th place, ahead of Ricciardo, Grosjean, Bottas, Van der Garde and Maldonado.

Q3 is once again filled with again as of the green light. As the track has dried up by now, the times are nearly to what they were in free practice. 5 minutes into the session, Vettel leads, ahead of Webber, Rosberg, Hamilton, Alonso, Raikkonen, Vergne, Sutil and Button.

Everybody pits after the first attempts, going in for new tyres and fuel good for just a few laps again. Rosberg eventually put in the best time, 0.092s faster than his teammate, securing another front row for Mercedes.