Hamilton and Rosberg rue qualifying strategy

2013 Malaysian Grand Prix

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Lewis Hamilton and Nico Rosberg admitted failing to change tyres during Q3 was a mistake.

Both stayed on the same set of intermediates during the top ten shoot-out in qualifying for the Malaysian Grand Prix and lost out to drivers who had changed theirs.

Hamilton, who qualified fourth, said he couldn’t say whether the team regretted the decision: “We’ve only just finished so I have to speak to my team whether they regret it or not.”

“But for me it’s just the way it is. Of course putting new tyres on was obviously the best way to go. Our strategy was to stay out, we thought it would dry out more and it would work in our favour, but it didn’t.”

Hamilton played down his disappointment at failing to qualify higher: “I want to be on pole so initially when you get out of the car of course you don’t think you’re happy. I was working to get pole position, we were as a team.

“But we’re a little bit back from what we were hoping for, so… but it’s motor racing, everyone’s in the same boat and tomorrow – there’s lots of positives to take out from today and yesterday so I’m excited about the race.”

Team mate Rosberg said he was “feeling very comfortable in the dry and definitely fastest guy out there”.

“I had the best car out there from everybody also so that was nice to see. And then unfortunately the rain came but still I was like ‘OK, no problem, I can still go fast’.

“I just messed up my strategy, stayed out there, others came in for a new set and I had damaged tyres.”

Rosberg added he is optimistic about his race prospects: “I have a good car, especially also in the race, and as we saw in Melbourne seventh place won the race so it’s still possible.”

2013 Malaysian Grand Prix

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Keith Collantine
Lifelong motor sport fan Keith set up RaceFans in 2005 - when it was originally called F1 Fanatic. Having previously worked as a motoring...

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34 comments on “Hamilton and Rosberg rue qualifying strategy”

  1. Brackley F1 and their usual brilliant strategies to the rescue.

    Watching this, Schumacher must be laughing his **** off right now, wherever he is.

    1. He qualified 4th.

      Lots of people made the same mistake not getting the new tyres.

      1. basically everyone (except Vettel)

        It says a lot that Vettel is wondering why the competition were so far back. He just got lucky (fairly so) with the timing of his decision. It happens every now and then.Vettel shouldn’t be wondering in that case!!!

        1. Can VET now use a fresh set of soft tyres for the race?

    2. Yeah, leaving just before the team get a really competitive car going :)

    3. I think tomorrow you’ll regret your comments today, they are actually looking competitive in both weather situations.

  2. i laugh when people said wet quali equalize the advantage which i call bs.

    Track is evolving all the time, the driver that did his flying lap on the right timing will get the pole. Some even went for full wet setup like seb who struggle on dry.

    NO MORE WET SESSION PLEASE…..wanna see the team battle each other out with their real competitive pace.

    1. Yeah maybe we should ban rain

      1. +1 indoor tracks!

      2. A message saying “Rain On” may be displayed, we will however be unable to actually enable it.

      3. Antonio (@frosty-jacks-racing-team)
        23rd March 2013, 15:16

        Install water pistols which collect water from the track, then you can fire it at other drivers/ make a turn undriveable

      4. The rain maybe deployed in certain parts of the track for which we can have a detection zone before the …………….wait it’s there isn’t it :P

      5. I think Bernie was talking about introducing some artificial clear skies at one point.

    2. I think your right I that its not so much of an equaliser in quali as it is in the race.

  3. If Mercedes really has the pace, qualifying doesn’t mean much.

    1. Well said!

  4. Hamilton, who qualified fifth

    I think he’s classified 4th which in the big scheme of things is ok. Maybe they could have bagged pole or at least a front row.

    Vettel is just a legend…

    1. Legend who was a few tenths away from being out in Q1.

      1. JimmyTheIllustratedBlindSolidSilverBeachStackapopolis III
        23rd March 2013, 21:10

        It’s really beyond the time when people should be talking him down. He’s not my favourite driver but give him his due 1 wdc is exceptional 2 in a row is all time great. 3 worldchampionships and in a row is legend out of 60 odd years of f1 only 2 other men have achieved that, if fangio and schumacher aren’t legends who else is?

        1. Anyone who uses numbers and stats to prove ‘greatness’ is being disingenuous, never more so than in F1, where machinery accounts for a massive portion of a competitors success.

          Button will never go down in history as a ‘great’, yet, if he had a car as solid as the BGP001 for 3 years running, he could very well have had 3 titles too.

          Vettel is good, yes, great? in my opinion no.

          1. JimmyTheIllustratedBlindSolidSilverBeachStackapopolis III
            24th March 2013, 3:13

            “Anyone who uses numbers and stats to prove ‘greatness’ is being disingenuous, never more so than in F1,”

            Yes you’re absolutely right how could numbers mean anything in f1 kimi raikkonen finished the australian race in 1 hour 30 minutes and 3 seconds but lets give the win to Jules bianch or adrian sutil. Although they were slower and didn’t win they surprised some viewers. Lets give the 2010 wdc to mark webber because although sebastian had more points everyone wanted mark to win. Let’s give schumi his 92nd win because a 5 place grid drop in monaco is just a number that has no relevance or place in f1. Thats how it works in f1… or not f1 is the cold light of day it’s the ultimate numbers game.

  5. Hamilton qualified 4th didn’t he?

    1. Antonio (@frosty-jacks-racing-team)
      23rd March 2013, 15:19

      Anyone else noticed Bianchi in Q1? His final lap was tenths from the midfield in his second ever race. THATS a legend.

      1. No it’s not, it’s good. Using the word legend is like laughing at your own jokes.

  6. vuelve kowalsky
    23rd March 2013, 10:35

    Mercedes are smelling the blood. i thought it was going to be a full silver front row, but pretty soon it will be.

    1. Rosberg looked mighty in the dry. Hammi was also in the mix.

    2. I suspect we might get that in China. With Nico on P1 of course.

  7. Chris (@tophercheese21)
    23rd March 2013, 13:43

    Vettel really is the man you want if there’s just one flying lap involved, however, the Red Bull’s race pace hasn’t looked great so far. So should make for an interesting race.

    IMO it’s gonna be 1st Alonso, 2nd Massa, 3rd Hamilton

    1. Massa looks good and eager to beat Alonso on Sunday. I hope he does and get a bit more respect from Ferrari.

      1. Chris (@tophercheese21)
        23rd March 2013, 23:48

        @jcost Yes, I really hope he gets a win this season.

        If he gets beaten by his teammate, then I hope it’s because of a genuine overtake, not the team telling him to move.

        If its close in the late stages of the race, and Massa is first, and Alonso is 2nd, I think Ferrari will tell Alonso to back off, because its too early in the season to be playing the political game.

  8. Looks like Mercedes power has an advantage on this circuit. It explains a number of things including, McLaren and Force India doing better, Red Bull struggling and Mercedes almost looking like getting Pole.

    I was analyzing the long runs by RB and Mercedes in FP1. Vettel ran 11 laps before his tyres went away, Rosberg 10 and Lewis 8. And the Red Bull was on an average about half a sec per lap faster.

    1. Just realized I was contradicting myself, Mercedes are probably good on a single lap.

    2. If you look at the Mercedes long run in FP2 that looked really good. Ross admitted that were struggling in FP1 because of the wrong setup in FP2 they changed to setup and there pace was really strong better then Red Bull more laps and faster then Red Bull. I really think the fight will be between Ferrari en Mercedes tomorrow if it stays dry. But Massa did 6 laps laps with 2 seconds delta staring with 1:42 and ending with 1:43;933. Rosber did 11 laps started with 1:43.7 end with 1:45:7. So its will be close.

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