Nico Rosberg claimed pole in Monaco ahead of Mercedes team-mate Lewis Hamilton

Mercedes completed their anticipated front-row lock-out for the Monaco Grand Prix on Saturday, with Nico Rosberg qualifying fastest ahead of team-mate Lewis Hamilton.

A driver might be able to make a difference but, of course, it helps if he's got the right car underneath him. Mercedes' current advantage over a single lap meant that an all-Silver Arrow front row was predictable, but how might Rosberg handle the changeable conditions? He was mightily fast during the morning's final session but also gave the barrier at Portier a thwack in setting his fastest lap. As it turned out, though, the German had everything under control when it mattered. The changing conditions posed a headache for teams and drivers but there were no red flags - a few trips up the escape road at Mirabeau appearing the worst of excesses. Marussia's Jules Bianchi failed to set a time in Q1 after his smoking car stopped on the climb to Massanet. He, di Resta and Massa were eventually joined in the 'drop zone' by Charles Pic, Max Chilton and Esteban Gutierrez. Conditions were still bad enough to make inters the norm in session two - up until the final five minutes or so, that is, when Caterham were the first to fit a set of supersofts to van der Garde's car. The Dutchman improved to sixth but the gamble didn't pay off as the drying track only got drier. As such, the times tumbled rapidly with both Grosjean and Pastor Maldonado among those joining van der Garde in dropping out. Vettel (1:15.988s) ended the session fastest from Raikkonen, Rosberg and Hamilton. It was supersofts all the way in Q3, however, with Vettel (1:14.333s) appearing set to spring a surprise after the first round of flying laps by going almost 0.4s faster than Webber, with Rosberg and Hamilton next up. Webber went fastest at the second attempt but Red Bull's time at the top of the timesheets was only brief as first Hamilton bettered him before Rosberg trumped them both, with Vettel falling a tenth short. The 2013 Monaco Grand Prix this weekend is live only on Sky Sports F1. Don't miss out, upgrade or subscribe to Sky Sports today or purchase a 24-hour day pass from Now TV