Lewis Hamilton Steals the Show from Nico Rosberg with 2015 Monaco GP Pole
Considering his recent form at the circuit, you'd have been forgiven for assuming Nico Rosberg was on course to displace Albert II as the Prince of Monaco.
Not since the days of Ayrton Senna, who won six Monaco grands prix in seven years in the late 1980s and early '90s, has a driver established such an intimate, harmonious bond with that two-mile long stretch of track as Rosberg has in the last three campaigns.
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Less than a second away from stealing the win from Mark Webber in 2012, the German secured a pole-to-flag victory in '13—30 years since his father, 1982 world champion Keke Rosberg, claimed his solitary win at Monaco—and repeated the feat last season at a venue where he grew tall and continues to reside.
For an adolescent Rosberg, the Casino Square complex might not have been one of the most iconic corners in Formula One, but simply a place where he crossed the road on his way to school each morning.
The seafront section—stretching all the way from Portier, through the tunnel, the Nouvelle Chicane and Tabac to La Rascasse—may not have provoked thoughts of grand prix racing, but memories of innocently tossing stones into the Mediterranean Sea as he toddled along the quayside.
Such an intricate knowledge of, and familiarity with, the region has almost seemed to have given Rosberg, particularly since he gained access to race and championship-winning cars, a head start, if not an unfair advantage, over his peers.
After Graham Hill's dominance in the '60s and Senna's stranglehold, Rosberg had become the modern-day Mr Monaco.
And according to BBC F1's Twitter account, he entered this weekend with the chance of cementing his place in the heart of Monte Carlo folklore by becoming only the second driver to claim three consecutive pole-to-flag victories.
Yet the German's abiding grip on the event was finally released in qualifying when Lewis Hamilton, the reigning world champion and Rosberg's Mercedes team-mate, claimed pole position on an afternoon that epitomised their respective 2015 seasons thus far.
After losing the title to Hamilton at the final round of 2014, Rosberg has been unable to replicate the performances which put him in that position in the first place, suffering from that dangerous mixture: a general lack of pace and a number of mistakes.
Rosberg's weekend got off to a less than impressive start on Thursday when, at the beginning of first practice, he brushed the barrier on the exit of Tabac and the German made two separate, sizable errors in the latter stages of qualifying, the most stressful Saturday session of the season.
Having locked up and taken to the run-off area at Sainte Devote on his final run of Q2, Rosberg made the same mistake on his last Q3 effort. But despite managing to avoid another off-track detour, the time lost meant the lap was ruined before it it had even begun, leaving him with no option but to abandon his final lap.
Even on a circuit he had made his own, the one place he was expected to succeed more than any other, Rosberg had still found a way to lose.
While Rosberg salvaged defeat from the brink of victory, Hamilton did very much the opposite, providing the latest sample of evidence that his second championship victory has transformed the way he operates on the track.
After looking comfortable on Thursday, the British driver's pace deserted him in FP3, in which Hamilton, according to the official F1 website, was 0.3 seconds slower than his team-mate. Although, per the same source, he managed to close the gap to just 0.060 seconds in Q1, the deficit was again extended to around 0.4 in Q2, which is where his afternoon transformed.
In years gone by, when he was lacking in maturity and direction, Hamilton would have simply soldiered on aimlessly into Q3, clinging to the hope of finding something from somewhere and ultimately causing himself more harm than good.
Yet now, as a two-time world champion, the winner of nine of the last 12 grands prix, he had the presence of mind to momentarily escape the competitive bubble and emerge as the team's calming influence.
"Calm down and reset," he said over team radio, according to Sky Sports' James Galloway, delivering the briefest of motivational speeches.
Having been outperformed by Rosberg in the last three Monaco GPs as well as the Spanish Grand Prix a fortnight ago, Hamilton effectively reminded himself that he was battling a man he had often beaten with ease since last Autumn.
That—even if this was Monaco, Nico's own backyard—he would reap the rewards if he approached Q3 in the same way he'd handle any other qualifying session.
From the moment his thumb came off the radio button on his steering wheel, the result was hardly in doubt, and Hamilton, with a refreshed perspective and first on the road in the inter-team fight at Mercedes, oozed class, securing pole by a comfortable 0.342 seconds (according to the official F1 website).
Standing at Tabac on Thursday morning, F1 journalist Peter Windsor noted that Hamilton was "floating" through the corner, while Rosberg divided the turn into "components," which was symbolic of how the pair are performing at this stage of 2015.
Whereas Lewis, provided he remains calm, conducts himself with exquisite levels of self-assurance and poise, Nico is fragmented and untidy, proving unreliable when it comes to stringing together the perfect lap or, indeed an ideal, unblemished weekend.
Rosberg, with history on his side, might be considered Monaco royalty. But expect Hamilton, with a first pole at the principality, to dethrone him on Sunday afternoon.
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