Monaco Grand Prix: F1 live! | Lawrence Ostlere
1.14pm BST
Lap 7: The incident at the start of the race which put Sergio Perez out of the race, which involved Jenson Button, is now being investigated.
1.13pm BST
Lap 5: Vettel, exasperated, says "aaah come on, guys" and pulls into the pits. He wanted to say something spicier but pulled out of a full blown tirade. He was stuck in first gear, apparently. At the front Hamilton is nipping away at Rosberg and the two Mercedes have opened up a decent gap. What a tasty duel we have on our hands.
1.10pm BST
Lap 4: The safety car dips in. Rosberg slows, slows, and slows some more. Everyone backed up behind him ... and we’re away again. Rosberg flies away and Vettel is slow off the mark and he’s being passed. And the World Champion has problems here, the Williams both pass him and Vettel is slowing. His race might be over.
1.08pm BST
Lap 2: Sergio Perez is out after an incident at Mirabeau, which is what brought out the yellow flags and safety car. Daniel Ricciardo made a really poor start, he was given some instructions over steering just before the start and I wonder if he had a problem. The safety will come at the end of lap 3.
1.06pm BST
Lap 1: Rosberg bursts off the line and his start is perfect, Hamilton has no chance to ‘Senna’ him and files behind in second. Vettel jumps past Ricciardo into third and so does Raikkonen! The frenetic start is hampered by an incident and the safety car is out.
1.03pm BST
I’m nervous. Cars twitching left and right, getting some heat in the tyres. Rosberg rounds La Rascasse and settles on to the grid. Here we go…!
1.01pm BST
"Great to see Vettel starting down the grid," emails Dean Rodrigues. "His 4 titles in the best car in the grid have never featured any particularly impressive wheel-to-wheel racing and Monaco leaves you nowhere to hide in that regard.
"Re: Rosberg/Hamilton: if it was an honest mistake by Rosberg, he should have had his tail between his legs afterward for "an amateur" mistake. Not ear-to-ear grinning like a kid in a sweet shop. Poor form."
1.00pm BST
Just a couple of minutes away here from the start of the 2014 Monaco Grand Prix. There’s no Ted Kravitz on Sky Sports today which has meant less on-grid insight than usual but this race hardly needs it. The cars are away on their formation lap. Hold on tight!
12.57pm BST
Niki Lauda this morning: "Lewis was, shall we say, a little bit funny this morning, and did not accept the apology of Rosberg."
12.56pm BST
Row 11. Nico Rosberg 115.989Mercedes 2. Lewis Hamilton 116.048Mercedes Row 2 3. Daniel Ricciardo 116.384Red Bull 4. Sebastian Vettel 116.547Red Bull Row 3 5. Fernando Alonso 116.686Ferrari 6. Kimi Raikkonen 117.389Ferrari Row 4 7. Jean-Eric Vergne 117.540Toro Rosso 8. Kevin Magnussen 117.555McLaren Row 5 9. Daniil Kvyat 118.090Toro Rosso 10. Sergio Perez 118.327Force India Row 6 11. Nico Hulkenberg 117.846Force India 12. Jenson Button 117.988McLaren Row 7 13. Valtteri Bottas 118.082Williams 14. Romain Grosjean 118.196Lotus Row 8 15. Pastor Maldonado 118.356Lotus 16. Felipe Massa No timeWilliams Row 9 17. Esteban Gutierrez 118.741Sauber 18. Adrian Sutil 118.745Sauber Row 10 19. Max Chilton 119.928Marussia 20. Kamui Kobayashi 120.133Caterham Row 11 21. Jules Bianchi* 119.332Marussia 22. Marcus Ericsson** 121.732Caterham
12.52pm BST
Emails please! I’m all alone. Did Rosberg pull a sneaky one yesterday or not? And what is going to happen on this first lap, and first corner?
12.43pm BST
12.39pm BST
1 Lewis Hamilton, British Mercedes, 100
2 Nico Rosberg, German Mercedes, 97
12.33pm BST
Just as the season had been ambling along, the volume turned down as Mercedes had began to put together their year-long open-top parade, Monaco qualifying happened. For those that missed it, there was time for one flying lap. Nico Rosberg led Lewis Hamilton in second. Hamilton was furiously quick, up on Rosberg’s time but on the approach to Mirabeau his lap was suddenly over. Yellow flags wagging, Rosberg was reversing serenely back onto the track after a mistake on entry into the right hander. The clocked ticked down, the session was over. Rosberg on pole. Hamilton seething.
I dont know if Senna and Prost talked about it but I quite liked the way Senna dealt with it, Hamilton said later, so Ill take a page out of his book. Oh cryptic Lewis, you! Was he referring to their general relationship or something more specific, namely the start of the 1990 Japanese Grand Prix when Senna took out Prost? Whatever Hamilton was getting at, he looked generally peeved in the very awkward post-qualifying photo-call with a gleeful Rosberg. Given the sheer imperative nature of the first lap and first corner at Monte Carlo above any track on the calendar, the fuse is lit on the most explosive start to a race this season. Things just got sassy.
12.00pm BST
Lawrence will be here shortly with all the build-up to the race. In the meantime, here’s Paul Weaver on an intense rivalry:
Before qualifying even got under way here on Saturday I asked the Mercedes motorsport executive director, Toto Wolff, about the fragile peace that existed between Lewis Hamilton and Nico Rosberg.
What if there was a clash, a coming together of the two drivers as the pressure intensified? Wolff smiled. It was a wry, almost world-weary smile. He said, prophetically: The question is not if, but when. They are both very intelligent and talented and they have raced each other for decades. So they know each other much better than everybody thinks.
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