Mercedes’ 2nd consecutive front row lockout

Monaco, 25 May 2013:  Mercedes driver Nico Rosberg has claimed his third consecutive pole position – an achievement never matched by his 1982 world champion father Keke, who won in Monaco 30 years ago – using the P Zero Red supersoft tyre, which is nominated with the P Zero Yellow soft this weekend. Rosberg’s time of 1m13.876s was nearly half a second quicker than last year’s pole time – set by Michael Schumacher in a Mercedes – and marked the fourth pole in a row for the team, after a thrilling session.

Mercedes AMG Petronas release:

Nico Rosberg and Lewis Hamilton claimed the second consecutive front-row lockout for the MERCEDES AMG PETRONAS team in Saturday’s qualifying session for the Monaco Grand Prix.

• Pole position is Nico’s third in a row and the fourth consecutive pole for the team in the 2013 season
• Nico was fastest in every practice session of the weekend prior to qualifying on pole this afternoon
• The 0.091s gap between the drivers is equivalent to less than a car length around the 3.340 km Monaco lap

Nico Rosberg 
It’s a great feeling to be on pole in the city where I grew up and it means so much to me to drive through the streets here in a Silver Arrow. The conditions were really difficult out there today with the rain at the start but we handled it well. I have to say thank you to everybody at the team for all of their hard work in improving our car and our performance so much since last year. Having said that, we know that race pace has been our weakness. We’ve learnt a lot since the last race, and this track should suit us, but we’ll have to wait until tomorrow to find out if this will be enough.

Lewis Hamilton 
Congratulations to Nico and the team today, a great job all round. It’s a big improvement for me after struggling in the practice sessions here so I’m really happy to be on the front row of the grid. I didn’t have a great first sector on my lap today but after that it really came together. I’ve got some work to do as I haven’t felt completely comfortable in the car this weekend but I’m confident that we can have a good race tomorrow and we’ll be aiming to get the best possible result for the team.

Ross Brawn 
That was a tricky session and the weather kept us on our toes for the whole hour. Nico, Lewis and the whole team did a great job throughout qualifying to put us in the perfect position at the front of the grid for tomorrow. We are well aware of our fate in the last few races and we have to make sure that we are in better shape for tomorrow. I believe we have moved in the right direction and we’ll see tomorrow if those improvements are enough and we can have a good race.

Toto Wolff 
What a fantastic result and a brilliant performance from both drivers. There was a lot to lose at the beginning of the session in the wet conditions and it was important to judge the right changeover point from intermediate to dry tyres. The team did a perfect job of keeping both drivers in the chase and they then delivered the rest out on track. Of course we are very pleased this afternoon but, at the risk of sounding like I am repeating myself, we know it’s tomorrow that really counts.

A Pirelli report: A sprinkling of rain half an hour before the start of Q1 meant that the track was damp for the first time all weekend. All the drivers started the opening session on the Cinturato Green intermediate tyre as the rain fell harder, before easing off in the closing minutes. The fastest driver in Q1 was Williams driver Pastor Maldonado, on the intermediate, while Caterham’s Giedo van der Garde also used the intermediate to take his team into Q2 for the first time this year.

The rain continued in Q2, meaning that intermediates were once more the obvious choice. With just under five minutes to go the drivers began to switch to supersoft slick tyres, led by van der Garde. Red Bull’s Sebastian Vettel was the fastest of the Q2 drivers on the supersoft, with a time set right at the end of the session.

The Q3 session was the only one where drivers were able to use slicks from the start, with all of them heading out on the supersoft. Pole position was decided in the closing seconds, with Rosberg taking pole from his team mate Lewis Hamilton.

Rosberg completed his domination of all the free practice sessions held at Monaco this year after going quickest by seven-tenths of a second in FP3 this morning on the P Zero Red supersoft.

Pirelli’s motorsport director Paul Hembery said:“Qualifying got off to a tricky start as the drivers were immediately confronted with wet conditions for the first time all weekend in Q1, making it difficult to judge the amount of grip available – particularly as some parts of the circuit were much wetter than others. Generally we saw that the track got a lot quicker as each session went on, making the timing of each qualifying run absolutely crucial. As usual track position will be the key to a good result heretomorrow, but there is always scope to use a creative strategy to move further up the order. However, if the uncertain conditions continue tomorrow then the strategies will be blown wide open. We’re still expecting to see more track evolution over the course of the weekend. Whether or not the drivers opt for one or two stops will depend on the speed of their cars and the track position they can maintain; we’re not expecting wear or degradation to be a significant issue. Congratulations to Mercedes for a one-two on the grid; it will be interesting to see what they do with their strategies as they aim to convert this result into a race win.”

The Pirelli mystery strategy predictor:

At Monaco, the strategy has to be very flexible in order to maintain track position and react to the high probability of a safety car at some point.

But theoretically, a two-stop strategy is quickest: start on the supersoft, change to the soft on lap 20 and soft again on lap 49.

An alternative strategy is a one-stopper, starting on the supersoft and moving to the soft on lap 36.

Another approach would be to start on the soft and change to the supersoft on lap 42.

ends