Rosberg on pole in Baku after Hamilton hits wall
Cash: Lendl will give Murray killer edge
CHAMPIONSHIP leader Nico Rosberg took pole position for Azerbaijan’s first Formula One Grand Prix yesterday after Mercedes teammate and title rival Lewis Hamilton hit a wall and qualified only in 10th position.
Mexican Sergio Perez qualified second for Force India, but will drop five places due to an unscheduled gearbox change after he crashed in final practice on the Baku street circuit.
That demotion lifted Red Bull’s Australian Daniel Ricciardo to the front row for today’s European Grand Prix with Ferrari’s Sebastian Vettel third and the German’s Finnish teammate Kimi Raikkonen fourth.
“They’ve done a great job up to now, with the track especially,” said Rosberg, who had been slower than triple world champion Hamilton in practice, but may yet have the last laugh.
“It was an exciting qualifying. It’s one of the easiest places to overtake, so it should be an exciting race.”
The pole was the 25th of Rosberg’s career, and first since Russia in April when Hamilton alsoqualified 10th after an engine failure.
The German won that race, with Hamilton second.
Today’s pole will have been all the sweeter for the German after Hamilton criticised rivals, including Rosberg, for ‘moaning’ about details of the street circuit whose layout winds around ancient city walls, but also has long straights.
The final phase of qualifying was halted with two minutes remaining after Hamilton, winner of the previous two races and nine points adrift of Rosberg in the standings, misjudged turn 10 and smashed his front right suspension.
Rosberg was out of his car by the time the session resumed, but with Hamilton no longer a threat, his pole time of one minute, 42.758 seconds was safe.
“I can’t really say yet what possibilities there are, but obviously I have to try and get up as high as possible tomorrow.
“It is damage limitation from here, and I will do what I can,” said Hamilton. “I had a fantastic rhythm yesterday, but zero today. Sometimes it hap- pens,” added the Briton, who was fastest in all three practice sessions, but went into the runoff area twice in the last two phases of qualifying.
The first incident ‘flat-spotted’ a front tyre, a worn patch where the wheel locked up under braking, from the set he is supposed to use in today’s race, unless they are too badly damaged. Ricciardo and Vettel, former teammates at Red Bull, recorded exactly the same time of 1:43.966, but the Australian got the nod for crossing the finish line first.
Brazilian Felipe Massa, for Williams, and Russian Daniil Kvyat, in a Toro Rosso, share the third row.
At the back, Manor could no longer be described as tail-enders after Indonesian Rio Haryanto and Germany’s Pascal Wehrlein qualified 17th and 18th.
That was ahead of 2009 world champion Jenson Button’s McLaren, Sauber’s Marcus Ericsson and the Renaults of Kevin Magnussen and Jolyon Palmer. – Reuters EXPERT ADVICE: Andy Murray and coach Ivan Lendl. TENNIS champions were yesterday united in believing Andy Murray has made a smart move bringing back Ivan Lendl, with Pat Cash insisting the “very blunt” Czech is just what the world No 2 needs.
Lendl was in Murray’s box for the first time in more than two years at the Aegon Championships at Queen’s Club.
Former Wimbledon champion Cash believes Murray has been honest enough to realise that he requires extra assistance to overcome the one player currently better than him, Novak Djokovic.
“It’s a very good move for Andy to look himself in the mirror and say “ok, where can I improve?”,’ said Cash, a Eurosport analyst.
“Ivan is not tactful, he’s like me – very blunt and straight to the point. He’ll say, ‘this is your problem, Andy, and I can help you fix it’, and sometimes you need to hear that.
“I’ve talked to Ivan a bit about what happened in the past and I think he indicated there was a little bit of a communication problem.
“Ivan is strong-headed and I think they saw things slightly differently. Maybe Andy said ‘Ok, I realise that Ivan was right’. That’s very mature.”
It was notable in Murray’s announcement on Sunday that he said Lendl, prior to accepting the offer, rang members of his team to check what kind of frame of mind the 29-year-old Scot was in these days.
Cash added: “Andy’s got better volleys than Novak, he’s probably got a better touch, so why is Novak consistently beating him? He’s got to come up with some answers.”
Greg Rusedski described their reuniting as a “no-brainer”, saying: “Maybe it will give Andy the extra percentage point of improvement he needs.
“I don’t think Ivan was going to come back unless he saw that Andy could win majors again. Tactically he is brilliant, and there’s the authority factor.
“Andy is playing great already, and I think he has a good chance of beating Djokovic at Wimbledon.”
Richard Krajicek, All England Club champion 20 years ago and the latest member of the high-profile coaches club after teaming up with Stan Wawrinka, believes it could be the difference between winning and coming second at SW19.
“Andy was so close at the French,” he said. “Maybe Lendl, just having him there, even if he would not say anything for the next couple of weeks, maybe that’s the last piece of the jigsaw.”
Krajicek said he might suggest Wawrinka spends his off days during Wimbledon hitting on hard courts, as he himself did in 1996. – Daily Mail