Hamilton takes maiden Monaco pole, Max starts in P9

Published on 23 May 2015 by Stefan Meens

Max Verstappen finished qualifying for the Monaco Grand Prix in tenth. The Dutchman will however start the race from P9 on the grid due to Carlos Sainz starting from the pits. Pole position was claimed by Lewis Hamilton, who beat his Mercedes colleague Nico Rosberg by over four tenths. Sebastian Vettel completes the top three.

Max starts his first qualifying session in the streets of Monte Carlo well. In Q1, the youngster steers his Toro Rosso into third, with only the Mercedes duo in front. The biggest casualty of the first part of qualifying is Williams' Valtteri Bottas who will start the race from sixteenth. The Finn joins both Saubers and both Manors at the back of the grid.

In Q2, Max comfortably sets a time within the top ten granting him access to the final part of qualifying. The Dutchman was however not pleased. “To be honest, Q1 wasn’t bad, but I asked the team to heat up to tyres better for Q2 in which I did clock a good lap but things didn’t go perfect.”

Meanwhile, Fernando Alonso was unable to finish qualifying after electrical problems forced him to park his car at Saint Devote. The double world champion joined team mate Jenson Button, Romain Grosjean, Nico Hulkenberg and Felipe Massa in the group of drivers stranding in Q2.

In the final part of qualifying, Max is unable to extract the most out of himself and the car resulting in tenth place. “I drove the same as in Q2 but I just didn’t have the grip. Because temperatures dropped, we failed to make the tyres work and if they don’t it's impossible to be fast”, explains a disappointed Max.

At the front, Hamilton takes a sovereign pole position ahead of Rosberg and Vettel. Daniel Ricciardo completes the first two rows on the grid. Carlos Sainz sets the eighth quickest time in qualifying but is forced to start the race from the pitlane. In Q1, the Spaniard failed to stop for weighing resulting in a penalty. It means that Max Verstappen moves one place up the grid for his very first Monaco Grand Prix.

“I'm hoping for a dry race, a first lap without issues and a race without problems. At the moment I'm really disappointed but we have to pick ourselves up”, concludes Max.

Monaco Grand Prix – Circuit de Monaco – Saturday 23 May

 QUALIFYING RESULTS
 P No Driver             Team          Q1         Q2         Q3       Laps 
 1 44 Lewis Hamilton     Mercedes      1:16.588   1:15.864   1:15.098   28 
 2  6 Nico Rosberg       Mercedes      1:16.528   1:15.471   1:15.440   25 
 3  5 Sebastian Vettel   Ferrari       1:17.502   1:16.181   1:15.849   24 
 4  3 Daniel Ricciardo   Red Bull      1:17.254   1:16.706   1:16.041   28 
 5 26 Daniil Kvyat       Red Bull      1:16.845   1:16.453   1:16.182   26 
 6  7 Kimi Raikkonen     Ferrari       1:17.660   1:16.440   1:16.427   23 
 7 11 Sergio Perez       Force India   1:17.376   1:16.999   1:16.808   22 
 8 55 Carlos Sainz       Toro Rosso    1:17.246   1:16.762   1:16.931   29 
 9 13 Pastor Maldonado   Lotus         1:17.630   1:16.775   1:16.946   30 
10 33 Max Verstappen     Toro Rosso    1:16.750   1:16.546   1:16.957   29 
11  8 Romain Grosjean    Lotus         1:17.767   1:17.007              22 
12 22 Jenson Button      McLaren       1:17.492   1:17.093              20 
13 27 Nico Hulkenberg    Force India   1:17.552   1:17.193              16 
14 19 Felipe Massa       Williams      1:17.679   1:17.278              22 
15 14 Fernando Alonso    McLaren       1:17.778   1:26.632              11 
16 12 Felipe Nasr        Sauber        1:18.101                         11 
17 77 Valtteri Bottas    Williams      1:18.434                         10 
18  9 Marcus Ericsson    Sauber        1:18.513                         11 
19 28 Will Stevens       Marussia      1:20.655                          9 
20 98 Roberto Merhi      Marussia      1:20.904                         10

On Twitter and Facebook we'll keep you updated throughout the weekend followed by a full report on Verstappen.nl at the end of the day’s action.

You can find the schedule for the Monaco Grand Prix here. 

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