Monaco Grand Prix
Mercedes driver Lewis Hamilton (C) celebrates his pole position next to his team mate Nico Rosberg (R) and Ferrari's Sebastian Vettel (left) after the qualifying session of the Monaco Grand Prix at the Circuit de Monaco.Reuters

Mercedes is set to dominate Monaco Grand Prix as Lewis Hamilton and Nico Rosberg secured the first and second place in qualifying, with Ferrari's Sebastian Vettel coming third.

Hamilton, who recently signed a three-year deal contract extension worth a reportedly £100 million with the silver arrows, finally managed to break his qualifying jinx in Monaco as he secured the pole position for the first time in his Formula one career with a time of 1:15.098.

Rosberg, who was looking for his third successive pole at Monaco, finished 0.342 seconds behind his team mate to claim the second place, followed closely by Vettel, who secured the third place with a time of 1:15.849.

Red Bull duo Daniel Ricciardo and Daniil Kvyat claimed the third and fourth positions with a time of 1:16.182 and 1:16.427 respectively, followed by Force India's Sergio Perez, who clocked 1:16.808 to finish seventh.

Toro Rosso's Carlos Sainz (1:16.931) and Lotus' Pastor Maldonado (1:16.946) finished eighth and ninth respectively, while Toro Rosso's Max Verstappen finished 10th with a time of 1:16.957.

Despite admitting that he is very happy after securing his first pole position in Monaco, Hamilton insists that the job is only half done and there is "still a long way to go."

"My first Monaco pole position; it's felt a long time coming!" the 30-year-old told Formula 1's official website. "Today, bringing the tyres in was tricky. We had to do an out-lap, warm up lap then fast lap. We had to do that for both tyres. It's an important day for me, looking back through every year at Monaco generally it's been quite poor."

"There's still a long way to go, it's only half the job. It's going to be mentally and physically challenging tomorrow but I'm looking forward to it. I think the last pole position for me here was in GP2 in 2006 so I hope I can take advantage of it tomorrow in the race."

Rosberg, on the other hand, says he is slightly disappointed not to secure the pole position, especially after doing very well in Q1 and Q2.

"I found a good way into qualifying today, had a good Q2, but then I lost the good rhythm at the end, which is a shame," the German told F1's official website. "I had to push a lot so I went a bit over the limit. Lewis did a good job today, unfortunately now it's getting really difficult to win this race. But I will dream tonight of my Barcelona start and hope to have another one tomorrow."

Meanwhile, Ferrari's Vettel says that he is satisfied with his third place finish in qualifying, and he is looking forward to challenging Mercedes on Sunday.

"I am happy with third place," the German told F1's official website. "Today it looked like everybody was struggling to get the tyres to working temperatures - which is funny, because they call them supersofts - and the Mercedes cars were the ones which probably suffered the least from this problem, so this is why the gap looks bigger."

"Tomorrow I will be starting from third on the grid, on the inside line. Everything can happen and I hope to have a good pull-off; it could be possible to jump one of the cars ahead, two is more difficult, but then Lewis, too, should have a good start, otherwise he may be blocking the way. The gap to our contenders is still there, but we have more to win than we have to lose."

Last season, Rosberg emerged victorious in the Monaco Grand Prix with a time of 1:49:27.661, followed by Hamilton (+9.2 secs) and Red Bull's Ricciardo (+9.6 secs).

Where to Watch Live

Race Timings: 2pm - 4pm local time, 5:30pm - 7:30pm IST, 1pm - 3pm BST.

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