All smiles for Daniel Ricciardo in Monaco

It’s a tough life being a motor-racing wunderkind. Red Bull’s Max Verstappen crashed out in Q1, breaking the right side of the car’s suspension, and was not very happy about it.

Not the best way to impress your bosses when you were bumped up to the senior team after one of their drivers was demoted as he kept making mistakes. Still, his win last time out will probably go some way to ameliorating any displeasure.

Bad times also for Sauber’s Felipe Nasr, ending with the ignominy of his engine simply packing up just outside the tunnel, and having to get his car lifted out of the way by a crane.

Sebastian Vettel of Ferrari, meanwhile, had a decent start to the day, trumping both those pesky Mercedes men, Lewis Hamilton and Nico Rosberg, to top the table going into Q2.

Out: Marcus Ericsson (Sauber), Jolyon Palmer (Renault), Rio Haryanto (Manor), Pascal Wehrlein (Manor), Max Verstappen (Red Bull), Felipe Nasr (Sauber)

It was Rosberg’s turn to clip a barrier in Q2 - such are the perils of this famously twisting circuit.

That didn’t stop him from revving up and going a whole hundredth of a second faster than Hamilton to put himself at the front of the field before the top 10 shoot-out.

Meanwhile, Jenson Button once again became the first of the two McLaren drivers to leave the qualifying field.

Out: Valtteri Bottas (Williams), Esteban Gutierrez (Haas), Jenson Button (McLaren), Felipe Massa (Williams), Romain Grosjean (Haas), Kevin Magnussen (Renault)

Hamilton’s bad luck continued, with his engine conking out a short way into Q3.

He got back out there with five minutes to go, but Red Bull’s Daniel Ricciardo had already recorded a fantastic flying lap, putting him in provisional pole. Rosberg did his best to close him down, but couldn’t get within 0.169 seconds of him.

Daniel Ricciardo is on pole! What an exciting turn-up for the books – and what a lovely place to record your first pole position.

One might expect it to put a smile on Ricciardo's face, but let's be honest, the man never stops smiling anyway. Still, excellent to see him right at the front of the pack.

The senior Red Bull driver hasn’t been rattled by the arrival of upstart Max Verstappen, who’s having a bad weekend so far – but don’t put it past him to pull off a shock or two during the race.

Another technical glitch for Lewis Hamilton, leaving him struggling for time and speed in Q3. Mercedes really should have worked those reliability issues out by now. Do they really want to carry on with having to field the sabotage conspiracy theorists on social media?

Carlos Sainz’s position is intriguing. He starts seventh – ahead of Toro Rosso team-mate Dany Kvyat, and of course ahead of his former colleague Verstappen who starts from the pit lane. He’s worth keeping an eye on for a decent result.

Rosberg – Hamilton - Ricciardo