Monaco Grand Prix: the tough battle for pole position

Monaco Grand Prix: the tough battle for pole position

Mercedes’ Rosberg and Hamilton are battling for pole, with Red Bull’s Ricciardo and Verstappen likely chasing them.

Mercedes team-mates Nico Rosberg and Lewis Hamilton are constantly battling for pole position at the Monaco Grand Prix, with Red Bull’s Daniel Ricciardo fastest in free practice for a race where starting first offers a big advantage.

With its harbor backdrop, narrow Place du Casino, tight hairpin bends, and stretch of tunnel, Monaco is a blast from the past allowing the best to show off their skills. “It’s an incredible feeling to have a car dancing on these streets,” said three-time Mercedes world champion Lewis Hamilton. “It’s one of the purest emotions you can feel in a race car.

The late Brazilian triple champion Ayrton Senna, a six-time winner in the Mediterranean principality, famously compared his qualifying lap with McLaren in 1988 to an out-of-body experience.

“I suddenly realized that I was no longer driving the car consciously,” he said in a later interview.

“I was driving it by instinct, only I was in another dimension. It was like I was in a tunnel, not just the tunnel under the hotel, but the whole circuit for me was a tunnel.

“I was just going, going. More and more, more and more. I was well above the edge but still able to find even more. Then suddenly something gave me an I woke up and realized that I was in a different atmosphere than you normally are.

Known as the jewel in the crown of the Formula 1 championship, Monaco has always been the race drivers want to win, but it also requires finesse to avoid unforgiving barriers.

Brazilian Nelson Piquet’s comment that running around Monaco was like riding a bike in his living room has become a cliché, but a sense of balance and poise remains as crucial today as it was then.

“It’s a course where speed is not very important,” three-time winner Stirling Moss at the recent historic race in Munich. “It’s how good the car is, how well you can handle the car.

Ferrari driver Sebastian Vettel, who finished third overall last year, is level with former Red Bull team-mate Ricciardo, with young Red Bull driver Max Verstappen just 10 points behind.

In Thursday’s free practice, racing fans got the unusual sight of Vettel’s trusty Ferrari hitting the track barriers twice when not under pressure. “I hit the wall here and there so obviously I’m not happy,” said Vettel, who has won 42 career races but none in the last 11 races. “It’s a track where you tend to try everything and sometimes you try too much.”

Vettel has won Monaco just once, en route to his second consecutive F1 title with Red Bull in 2011. He has since finished second twice, dropped out of the race two years ago, and finished fourth in 2012.

“We’re not here to fight for 8th place [8th place] or anything in that range, we want to win,” said a defiant Vettel ahead of qualifying. We should be significantly stronger on Saturday In an ideal world, we’ll be right in front of the line.”