Rosberg Accomplishes F1 Pole Three-Peat at Monaco

Photo Credit: Mercedes AMG

Historic and unique, the Monaco Grand Prix is the sixth race on the 2013 Formula 1 calendar. Since 1929, the grand prix has ranked at the pinnacle of auto racing alongside the Indianapolis 500 and 24 Hours of Le Mans. Second greatest honour to winning the Monaco Grand Prix during the Formula 1 season is capturing the pole for the streets of Monte Carlo affair. For the 2013 edition of the prestigious street race, Nico Rosberg has claimed the pole for Sunday's 78-lap event.

Muscling his Mercedes AMG race car around the tight street corners of Monte Carlo, Rosberg recorded a pivotal 1-minute, 13.876-second time in the Q3 session of Saturday qualifying. The pole position becomes Nico Rosberg's third consecutive victory in Formula 1 time trial sessions. For Mercedes AMG, the success in Monaco qualifying has allowed one of their vehicles to sit in pole position on the grid for four straight events. Clocking a time 9/100ths of a second slower than Rosberg, Mercedes AMG teammate Lewis Hamilton is fast enough to allow the German race team to own the front row of the 2013 Monaco Grand Prix starting grid.

Red Bull Racing has claimed the second starting row of the 2013 Monaco Grand Prix with Sebastian Vettel edging out Mark Webber. Webber is the defending race winner and has won the Monaco Grand Prix twice in the past three years. Vettel is the 2011 victor of the famous Formula 1 street race.

Saturday's qualifying consisted of brief period of rain that dampened the race track. Occurring around the Q1 and Q2 portions of qualifying, teams operated on intermediate Pirelli tires before the ten remaining Formula 1 cars were able to use slicks. Complicating the whole qualifying effort on Saturday, Felipe Massa was one driver unable to participate. Massa's Ferrari crashed in final practice for the Monaco Grand Prix leading the Brazilian to start on the final spot on the race grid. The Ferrari driven by recent Spanish Grand Prix winner Fernando Alonso is positioned sixth for Sunday's event.

The 2013 Monaco Grand Prix race is set for 2 PM local time (8 am in the Eastern time zone).



2013 Formula 1
Monaco Grand Prix
Starting Grid

Pos #	Car #	Driver	Team	Engine
1	9	Nico Rosberg	Mercedes AMG	Mercedes-Benz
2	10	Lewis Hamilton	Mercedes AMG	Mercedes-Benz
3	1	Sebastian Vettel	Red Bull	Renault
4	2	Mark Webber	Red Bull	Renault
5	7	Kimi Raikkonen	Lotus	Renault
6	3	Fernando Alonso	Ferrari	Ferrari
7	6	Sergio Perez	McLaren	Mercedes-Benz
8	15	Adrian Sutil	Force India	Mercedes-Benz
9	5	Jenson Button	McLaren	Mercedes-Benz
10	18	Jean-Eric Vergne	Scuderia Toro Rosso	Ferrari
11	11	Nico Hulkenberg	Sauber	Ferrari
12	19	Daniel Ricciardo	Scuderia Toro Rosso	Ferrari
13	8	Romain Grosjean	Lotus	Renault
14	17	Valtteri Bottas	Williams F1	Renault
15	21	Giedo van der Garde	Caterham	Renault
16	16	Pastor Maldonado	Williams F1	Renault
17	14	Paul di Resta	Force India	Mercedes-Benz
18	20	Charles Pic	Caterham	Renault
19	12	Esteban Gutierrez	Sauber	Ferrari
20	23	Max Chilton	Marussia	Cosworth
21	22	Jules Bianchi	Marussia	Cosworth
22	4	Felipe Massa	Ferrari	Ferrari