Formula 1 - Qualifying at the 2015 Monaco Grand Prix

The cool weather and the associated problem of getting the Supersoft tires up to temperature was the challenge in qualifying at the Monaco Grand Prix. Mercedes solved it by letting Hamilton and Rosberg do a slow lap first to score points with the second lap. For Lewis Hamilton, this led to success and pole. Team-mate Rosberg started the race next to him, with Vettel and Ricciardo lurking behind.

by B. Fleckenstein

Under cloudy skies and an outside temperature of 18° Celsius, the Whitsun weekend began with a surprise in qualifying for the Monaco Grand Prix. Like the Sauber drivers, Valtteri Bottas failed to qualify for Q2 in his Williams. Max Verstappen, on the other hand, surprised everyone by crossing the finish line in his Toro Roso in third place, 0.222 seconds behind the winner Lewis Hamilton. Sebastian Vettel, who was first in free practice, lost almost a second to the Silver Arrows.
In Q2, the Heppenheimer was able to make gains again with the red Supersoft tires and reduced the gap to the Q2 leader, Nico Rosberg, to 0.75 seconds. Vettel said in the interview after qualifying that it was a bit too cool for the supersoft tires in qualifying, in contrast to free practice, where it was warmer. With Felipe Massa it was then the second Williams for whom qualifying ended with Q2. Fernando Alonso stopped on the track with technical problems and stablemate Jenson Button missed Q3, as did Romain Grosjean in his Lotus.
In Q3, it was the two Silver Arrows that opened Q3 one after the other. Lewis Hamilton set the fastest lap in Q3 for the time being. Sebastian Vettel was able to reduce the gap to just over half a second, while Nico Rosberg was just over a tenth behind Hamilton. But only Hamilton was able to improve his time slightly and increase the time gap to the competition.

Starting grid according to qualifying result
1 L. Hamilton Mercedes 1:15.098
2 N. Rosberg Mercedes + 0:00.342
3 S. Vettel Ferrari +0:00.751
4 D. Ricciardo Red Bull +0:00.943
5 D. Kwjat Red Bull 0:01.084
6 K. Raikkonen Ferrari 1:16.427 0:01.329
7 S. Perez Force India 0:01.710
8 C. Sainz Toro Rosso 0:01.833
9 P. Maldonado Lotus 0:01.848
10 M. Verstappen Toro Rosso 0:01.859
11 R. Grosjean Lotus 0:01.536
12 J. Button McLaren 0:01.622
13 N. Hülkenberg Force India 0:01.722
14 F. Massa Williams 0:01.807
15 F. Alonso McLaren
16 F. Nasr Clean
17 V. Bottas Williams 0:01.906
18 M. Ericsson Sauber
19 W. Stevens Manor-Marussia 0:04.127
20 R. Merhi Manor-Marussia 0:04.