Mercedes AMG Petronas
Lewis Hamilton expressed his delight as he claimed pole position at Monaco for the first time since he made his debut in Formula 1.
Hamilton posted a time of 1:15.098 during Q3 to beat Mercedes team-mate Nico Rosberg by three tenths of a second, securing his first pole at the circuit since his GP2 days.
"It’s been a long, long time but I can’t express how happy I am, [it] wasn’t the easiest session, lots of things which were thrown off rhythm, I didn’t have it until the last two laps so [I] was really happy with it, just hoping for once that you’ve got it, this is very special for me and I’m very happy," he said.
"At this track it’s so hard, but getting your head around it and improving - it’s important to get to a rhythm, it’s like a ladder taking one step and if you slide down you have to get back up.
"We had problems with tyres, wings, traffic, so it wasn’t easy and it makes it even more special. If you put in good laps and good laps you expect it [pole] but we didn’t have quickest laps in Q1 or Q2 so I’m really happy."
Hamilton nonetheless insisted that there is still work to do before Sunday's race.
"This is not even half the job, there’s so much to do tomorrow, mentally and physically challenging but I’m so happy, nothing was able to get in my way today," he said.
"[In] previous years things got in the way or I wasn’t good enough, I think 2006 [in] GP2 was the last time I started on pole here but just a big thank you to the team as the performance in the car was outstanding."
