Lewis Hamilton was again content to trail in the wake of team-mate Nico Rosberg in qualifying, even though it meant missing out on pole position for today's Monaco Grand Prix.

Mercedes, this season's one-lap specialists, locked out the front row for the second consecutive race, with Rosberg starting from pole for the third successive occasion. The German, who pipped Hamilton by just 0.091secs, now has the chance to follow in the footsteps of his father Keke exactly 30 years on and become a winner around the streets of the principality.

Hamilton, who won this race in 2008 en route to claiming the title, admitted: "I've been struggling all weekend with the car. It's the first time I've ever had that experience here in Monaco since 2005 [when he was in Formula Three].

"I've always been on it, I've not had any problems with confidence or anything like that, but this weekend has been difficult. My last lap is probably the first time I've switched my tyres on all weekend, and when you don't generate the heat in your tyres you don't have the confidence to hit the brakes hard and brake late.

"Even on that lap my tyres weren't ready by turn one, which means you have a bit of understeer and you're playing catch-up for the rest of the lap. But generally the rest of the lap was great. That's why my middle and last sectors were competitive.

"It was a big improvement for me because in P1, P2 and P3 it was a disaster. I think it's because it's still a new car, and for whatever reason I'm still coming to terms with it. So I'm really happy to be here, to lock out the front row for the team. It was a massive improvement for me, so I'm chuffed."

Keke Rosberg triumphed in Monaco in a Williams-Ford in 1983. Nico would become the first son of a winner at this track to follow suit but was far from counting his chickens last night, given he has only finished ninth and sixth from pole at the last two races, in Bahrain and Spain, and that despite the fact a clean start for the Mercedes duo should allow them to control the race from the front.

"It's always nice to hear these statistics, but it doesn't really change much for tomorrow," Rosberg said. "Obviously I'm very happy to be starting first. Everything went to plan and the last lap was OK. So it's great to be on pole again, especially in Monaco. If you want to do that at any track then it's this track where it makes a difference.

"But in Barcelona [at the Spanish GP] we struggled a lot in the race. I was 70 seconds behind the winner [Fernando Alonso] at the end of the race. We're improving, but it's still difficult to understand the tyres and get the most out of them, so there are still a lot of question marks remaining.

"Here, I'm sure we've made a step forward, but it's still going to be difficult for us, definitely. It's still our weakness, but we'll make the best of it, and who knows? You can always have a few surprises."

Red Bull occupy the second row, with championship leader Sebastian Vettel third and Mark Webber fourth. Vettel's title rivals, Kimi Raikkonen in the Lotus and Alonso's Ferrari – four points and 17 points adrift respectively – line up fifth and sixth.

Jenson Button starts ninth in his McLaren, two places behind team-mate Sergio Perez, primarily due to an issue at the start of his final hot lap when his car lost power.

Paul di Resta failed to make it out of Q1 and is 17th on the grid, equalling the worst slot of his career going back to the 2011 Belgian GP. That, however, was the fault of Force India as they failed to call in the Scot for a fresh set of intermediate tyres given qualifying had started in the wet.