Sebastian Vettel topped the times for Ferrari ahead of the two Mercedes in Saturday morning s third and final free practice session for Sunday s Monaco Grand Prix.
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Daniel Ricciardo took the first pole position of his career with a sensational lap of the streets of Monte Carlo to book his place at the front of the grid for Sunday’s Monaco Grand Prix.
Vettel, who finished third overall previous year, is level with his former Red Bull teammate Daniel Ricciardo, with Red Bull’s teen driver Max Verstappen only 10 points behind them.
Hamilton – who is yet to win a race this season – comes into the weekend with a 43 point deficit to Rosberg at the head of the standings.
Why so bullish? The team tested an updated engine at trials in Barcelona after the Grand Prix, and results were sufficiently encouraging to move up the scheduled race debut to Monaco, instead of Montreal in two weeks. He was three tenths adrift of his McLaren team-mate Fernando Alonso, who made it through to Q3, and posted a lap good enough for 10th.
“We are used to being on pole for a couple of years, but you need to manage your own and everybody’s expectations”, said Wolff.
“Nico did a great job, as we saw, which I think caught Lewis by surprise”, Mercedes executive technical Paddy Lowe said.
Toro Rosso’s Daniil Kvyat was a promising seventh, edging his team-mate Carlos Sainz Jr by 0.065s.
On a lovely blue-skied day, there was early drama in Q1 when Felipe Nasr’s Sauber suffered an engine failure in the opening minutes, smoke pouring from his Ferrari power unit as he came out of the tunnel towards Tabac.
“For me, the ultra-soft is not soft”.
One statistic surely irks the triple champion though: Rosberg can become the only man since Hamilton’s idol Ayrton Senna to win this famous race four times on the trot.
Hamilton’s prospects of snatching pole were wrecked when he had to pull up in the pit lane as he queued to join the fray in Q3. Jolyon Palmer spun and brushed the wall at the Swimming Pool chicane but despite some rear wing damage, he was able to return to the track later in the session.
The threat of team orders looms larger, Hamilton has no doubt, after the embarrassing mangle of Mercedes Kevlar on lap one in Spain.
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Ricciardo’s pole is particularly sweet for Red Bull – which came very close to cutting ties with engine supplier Renault last season as the team struggled for form.
