Rosberg enjoys a perfect drive
NICO Rosberg had a superb start from pole for his first Formula One season victory yesterday, while his championship leading Mercedes teammate Lewis Hamilton salvaged second thanks to a strategy change after getting off the grid poorly.
Rosberg ended Hamilton’s 2015 pole monopoly on Saturday and then cruised to his ninth career victory ahead of Hamilton and Sebastian Vettel of Ferrari, after finishing behind his teammate in the season’s first four races.
Vettel flew past the slow starting Hamilton on the first straight, but a switch to three stops helped Hamilton reclaim second over Vettel who, like Rosberg, had two stops.
The three-time season winner Hamilton leads the championship with 111 points from Rosberg (91) and Vettel (80).
Rosberg is the ninth different winner in as many years in Barcelona, but the 19th in 25 editions to win from pole on the 4 655km Circuit de Catalunya where overtaking is difficult.
“It was a perfect weekend. Perfect to be on pole and then to win the race like this,” Rosberg said. “Finally, I got a perfect start, it’s been a long time coming.
“I had a different clutch. I had the first really good start of the year and managed the race well.”
Hamilton, who had a 75th career podium, spoke of “a difficult weekend” as, apart from qualifying, he had also trailed Rosberg in two of the three practice sessions.
“I just clearly got a bad start, got lots of wheel spin, but I’m grateful to get back up to second place,” he said.
Vettel said: “We had a good start, were able to get past Lewis and we did the right thing covering him at the first stop. But when they switched to the three-stop, we couldn’t keep up; they were too quick today.”
Mercedes motorsport chief Toto Wolff said Rosberg was “flawless, he did everything right”. He said Hamilton was at a disadvantage at the start being on the dirty side, but that “P2 feels like a victory”.
Rosberg had the perfect start he had hoped while behind him Vettel charged past Hamilton on the long straight ahead of the first turn, and Hamilton only barely hung on to third under pressure from the Williams of Valtteri Bottas.
Rosberg was almost seven seconds ahead of Vettel after 10 laps, with Hamilton another second behind but unable to attack the four-time champion.
Mercedes, as a result, called in Hamilton for an early pit stop in the 14th, but a slow stop owing to a problem fitting the left rear tyre and a swift reaction from Ferrari who called Vettel in a lap later left the order unchanged – with Rosberg pitting in the 16th.
There was agony for the Spanish home crowd when former world champion and 2013 race winner Fernado Alonso overshot the pit box in the 28th because of a brakes problem and had to retire his McLaren. And, with Jenson Button finishing 16th, McLaren are still without a championship point.
“It was scary, I had no brakes for the whole lap,” the frustrated Alonso said.
Vettel and Rosberg had their second and last stop in the 41st and 46th – and the Mercedes strategy worked thanks to fresher tyres for faster laps when Hamilton emerged from his last stop in the 51st ahead of Vettel.
But the day belonged to Rosberg who crossed the line under sunny Spanish skies after 1 hour 41 minutes 12.555 seconds, some 17 seconds ahead of Hamilton.
Vettel eventually trailed by 45 seconds as he was held up in traffic, but Ferrari also unable to close the gap after all teams made upgrades to the cars in the three weeks between Bahrain and Spain.
“Our car is still considerably faster than Sebastian’s. We are still the fastest by a big margin,” Rosberg said.
The success will give Rosberg added confidence ahead of the next race on May 24 in Monte Carlo, where he resides and won last year. – ANA-DPA