NICO’S PERFECT 10
Rosberg takes pole but Hamilton remains calm
NICO ROSBERG’S domination of Mercedes teammate Lewis Hamilton this weekend continued as he grabbed his 10th pole position of the season. Fastest in all three practice sessions ahead of today’s Brazilian Grand Prix, Rosberg followed up by topping the timesheet at the end of each of the three qualifying runs.
The crucial one, of course, came at the death and seconds after he had been ousted by Hamilton, the German took pole – and with it the trophy for most in a year – by just 0.033secs.
In terms of responding to Hamilton’s run of five successive wins that have opened up a 24-point gap between the duo, Rosberg so far could not have produced a more perfect performance.
The Interlagos circuit has never sat well with Hamilton and he has only claimed one podium - and that a third place - in seven prior attempts around one of Formula One’s most famous venues.
For a few seconds, though, there was a glimmer of hope Hamilton had stolen a pole from under the nose of Rosberg as, after his final hot lap, he was on top by a tenth of a second. Rosberg, however, had other ideas, clinching top spot on the grid by a fraction of a second.
Rosberg’s problem this season is that from the nine previous occasions he has been on pole, he has only won two races.
‘This will be a perfect job only if it works out [today],’ he explained. ‘So far it’s going well, but I need to make it happen in the race, unlike Austin (he was on pole but finished second at the United States Grand Prix), for example.
‘The adrenalin is there, the tension, the excitement, they have not changed that much. I’m trying to push myself to go for it, to be optimistic, to learn from Austin. I know what I need to do, so I’m good to go.’
As far as Hamilton is concerned, knowing he is in the box seat when it comes to the title, he said: ‘Qualifying was great fun. Ni c o di d a great lap.
‘It was great to keep going out and fighting, the gap should always be that close, so it was really exciting and I hope people enjoyed it. I’m going to work as hard as I can for the win.’
In front of his home fans, Felipe Massa kept the Mercedes duo honest and will start third, much to his obvious delight.
‘It’s very emotional to be here, here in Brazil, to have a competitive car and to start in the top three,’ he said.
Massa will have teammate Valtteri Bottas alongside him on the second row, with the Williams duo followed by McLaren’s Jenson Button and Red Bull of Sebastian Vettel in fifth and sixth respectively.
Kevin Magnussen was seventh quickest, with the Ferrari pair of Fernando Alonso and Kimi Raikkonen eighth and 10th, either side of Daniel Ricciardo in his Red Bull.
With no Caterham and Marussia, the latter officially out of business after the doors were closed on the Banbury-based factory on Friday, the FIA reverted to the qualifying format as run in the United States last weekend. With 18 cars on the grid, four exited at the end of both Q1 and Q2, so retaining the top-10 shoot-out.
Sauber duo Esteban Gutierrez and Adrian Sutil, neither of whom will be driving for the team next season, dropped out of Q2 and start 11th and 13th respectively either side of Force India’s Nico Hulkenberg.