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Rosberg Takes Second Consecutive Monaco Pole

Nico Rosberg celebrates his second straight Monaco Pole Saturday in Monte Carlo. The German will start alongside his teammate and series leader Lewis Hamilton. [Photo by Sutton Imagesports]

MONTE CARLO, Monaco- Even after going off the track at Mirabeau just moments before the end of the final qualifying session for Sunday’s Grand Prix of Moanco, Nico Rosberg set an earlier time of 1:15:989 which gave the German his second consecutive pole in the principality. Rosberg just edged out teammate and series leader Lewis Hamilton, while Daniel Ricciardo finished in third for Red Bull Racing.

Rosberg, despite his mistake at the end of the concluding session thought that his chances were over to obtain pole position.

‘I thought it was over once it had happened, but I thought that the track would ramp up and someone else would set a faster time, but I had no idea.” He claimed.

Considering a dry and beautiful day after rain earlier in the week, the opening session got underway with Russian Dani Kvyat spinning out of the tunnel and striking the wall near the chicane, damaging the rear wing of his Toro Rosso entry. But the 20 year old rookie managed to continue on and advance to the next round. But his teammate Jean-Eric Vergne was more fortunate, setting the fastest time of the session with a 1:17:557 fastest lap, while both Sauber, Marussia and Caterham drivers all were eliminated from continuing on.

Hamilton answered back in the following session by posting a 1:16:354 in an incident free session, while Nico Hulkenberg, Jenson Button, Williams drivers Valterri Bottas and Felipe Massa and the Lotus pair of Romain Grosjean and Pastor Maldonado did not advance.

However, despite the problem that Rosberg did have at the end of the Saturday qualifying session for this prestigious event, no one else could match his earlier fastest time, and Hamilton showed his displeasure when coming into park ferme after failing to defeat his teammate. Ricciardo, on the other hand, realized that even after beating his teammate and defending world champion Sebastian Vettel, he was hoping that in order to defeat Mercedes, he will need a lot of luck on race day.

Vettel lead the rest of the top ten finishers by taking fourth, while the Ferrari pair of Fernando Alonso and Kimi Raikkonen took fifth and sixth, respectively. Vergne had a great day, finishing seventh, while Jan Magnussen ended up eighth. Surviving the first session, Kvyat continued on and took ninth, while Sergio Perez had a quiet day of incidents and rounded up the top ten.

For Rosberg, it gives him a chance to retake the lead in the championship series if he can accomplish good results on race day, but for the moment, the German could not be more delighted.

“I am really, really happy and being on pole at home could not be any better.” He answered afterwards.

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