Rosberg takes pole as Hamilton rues a session filled with errors

World champion 10th on grid after crash by city wall Briton mocked drivers for complaints about track

No moaning from Nico Rosberg, just groaning for Lewis Hamilton. While Rosberg celebrated pole position for the inaugural European Grand Prix in Azerbaijan, Hamilton trudged back to the pits after a bizarre, error-filled qualifying session, which ended with an uncharacteristic crash by Baku’s medieval city walls and a disastrous 10th place on the grid.

The mockery with which he spoke of his teammate and others who were concerned about track safety here looked a little more ill-judged last night.

Luck has not been on Hamilton’s side so far this year but he could not blame misfortune here. It was unquestionably one of his worst qualifying sessions for a long time, curious both in the number and severity of his slip-ups.

On Friday evening, Hamilton berated his fellow drivers for whingeing about the circuit, particularly the lack of run-offs, but he needed those few escape roads badly as he blundered his way through the session.

First, there was a litany of tyre lockups, damaging precious rubber he will need in today’s race, and then he capped off an appalling session by clipping the barrier at the narrow section which snakes through Baku’s old town. The suspension is irreparably damaged, he told the team: “I’m out. I’m out of the session.”

Just when he had wrestled back control of this world championship he surrendered control to Rosberg, who drove well to take a 25th career pole.

To his credit, Hamilton simply owned up after an awful day at the office. “Not a good day for me. Probably the worst session I’ve ever had in qualifying,” the three-time champion said. I had a fantastic rhythm yesterday but zero today. Sometimes it happens.

“It’s just an off-day. The best thing to do is to look forward. It’s going to be damage limitation, but it’s not impossible to win from where I’m starting. Safety cars could be a blessing for me.”

Nearly a second faster than the rest in qualifying, Rosberg faces a straightforward task today if he makes it round the first lap in the lead, although safety cars should play their part.

His closest challengers initially will be Daniel Ricciardo and Sebastian Vettel, who qualified with exactly the same time, but the Australian will start ahead on account of setting his lap first.

Sergio Perez should have been ahead of both of them, qualifying a superb second, but he incurred a five-place grid penalty after crashing in morning practice, needing a new gearbox. Unfortunately, as brilliant as he was in qualifying, the Mexican only had himself to blame. Just like Hamilton.

On the billboards around town for this grand prix – rather poorly attended for a race right in the heart of the city, the first in Baku, too – they say the speed is higher “in the land of fire”, as Azerbaijan is known.

But someone must have put Hamilton’s flame out overnight while he was walking his dogs round the cobbled streets. He utterly dominated practice on Friday, despite the jibes about him doing just eight laps in the simulator and not even bothering to walk the track. Morning practice yesterday was not too shabby either, topping the timesheets from Rosberg.

Yet when qualifying began all that speed and poise evaporated. In its place was a driver hardly resembling the Hamilton we admire. The 31year-old seemed ill at ease with a car which obeyed his every command on Friday.

Mercedes made some changes to the setup – it is not exactly clear how severe they were – and Hamilton believed this made a considerable difference. “The car didn’t feel as good as yesterday,” he explained. “I couldn’t brake where I did yesterday. Still good enough for pole, though.”

With Rosberg ahead in both the first two segments of qualifying, some drivers might have consolidated and taken second. But that is not in Hamilton’s psyche. “That’s not the way he’s calibrated,” as Toto Wolff, his team boss, put it.

His troubles capped off a shocking day for the British drivers – Brexit from the European Grand Prix come early, if you will. Jolyon Palmer, in his rookie season, remember, was less than onetenth of a second behind his Renault teammate Kevin Magnussen, but it was still only good enough for dead last on the grid.

Only three places above was Jenson Button in 19th. He was just as honest as Hamilton in his explanation. “I buggered up, really,” the 2009 world champion admitted.

There were mitigating circumstances, but it remained a desperately disappointing day for McLaren, who were slower than they had hoped. Button’s team-mate, Fernando Alonso, was only five places higher.

“It can’t be any worse than this,” said the frustrated Spaniard as he crossed the line.