Hamilton pips Rosberg to crucial Singapore pole

2014 Singapore Grand Prix qualifying

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With two minutes to go in Q3 there was no Mercedes in the top five. But they bounced back to claim their seventh front-row lock-out for 2014.

Lewis Hamilton edged team mate Nico Rosberg by just seven-thousandths of a second over a 105-second lap of Singapore’s Marina Bay circuit.

Ferrari looked like being the closest challengers to Mercedes to begin with but the Red Bull pair evicted them from the second row with their final runs.

Q1

With the super-soft tyres offering a lap time gain of two-and-a-half seconds over the soft compound, every driver had to use the softest tyres to ensure a place in the second phase of qualifying.

Nico Rosberg slipped up on his first run. He braked too late at turn eight but opted to use the run-off to avoid damaging his tyres.

The importance of preserving his rubber for the grand prix was clearly uppermost in his mind as he was later heard reminding his team on more than one occasion to “tell me when I need to go slowly because it’s race tyres”.

Rosberg and Hamilton both later got clean laps in but the Mercedes drivers weren’t quickest at this stage. As in two of the three practice sessions it was Ferrari who led the way, but this time it was Kimi Raikkonen on top, followed by Fernando Alonso.

Sebastian Vettel had to abandon his first run on super-soft tyres when he was held up by Marcus Ericsson and Daniil Kvyat. But he comfortably made it through on his next attempt, leaving Adrian Sutil and Pastor Maldonado to accompany the usual quarter of Marussas and Caterhams in elimination.

Drivers eliminated in Q1

17Adrian SutilSauber-Ferrari1’48.324
18Pastor MaldonadoLotus-Renault1’49.063
19Jules BianchiMarussia-Ferrari1’49.440
20Kamui KobayashiCaterham-Renault1’50.405
21Max ChiltonMarussia-Ferrari1’50.473
22Marcus EricssonCaterham-Renault1’52.287

Q2

Rosberg’s attempts to minimise his tyre consumption suffered a setback in Q2 when he had to make a second run to guarantee his place in the final ten – unlike his team mate.

Hamilton’s first run put him on the top of the times, albeit with the two Ferrari drivers within seven-hundredths of a second of him. Rosberg was next, but with his time looking vulnerable he elected to run again. Despite complaining about being held up by Vettel, Rosberg set a 1’45.825 which put him comfortably on top.

Jenson Button narrowly failed to make the cut with his last run, falling short by 17 thousandths of a second.

But his disappointment was nothing compared to that of a furious Romain Grosjean, who directed his anger at his engine after setting the slowest time in Q2.

Drivers eliminated in Q2

11Jenson ButtonMcLaren-Mercedes1’46.943
12Jean-Eric VergneToro Rosso-Renault1’46.989
13Nico HulkenbergForce India-Mercedes1’47.308
14Esteban GutierrezSauber-Ferrari1’47.333
15Sergio PerezForce India-Mercedes1’47.575
16Romain GrosjeanLotus-Renault1’47.812

Q3

With all eyes on the contest between Mercedes and Ferrari, the first runs in Q3 produced a surprise.

Hamilton posted the fastest time through the first sector but clambered across the kerbs at turn 17 and slipped to sixth. That at least put him one place higher than Rosberg, who began the session on used tyres.

The Ferrari drivers were unable to take advantage as Felipe Massa and Daniel Ricciardo claimed the provisional front row – but that all changed with the final runs.

Rosberg seemed to have found enough time when he crossed the line with a 1’45.688 to jump into first place. But despite a brief lock-up at turn one, Hamilton found enough to unseat his team mate from first place and clinch his sixth pole position of the year.

He did it by a mere seven-thousandths of a second. “Damnit!” Rosberg exclaimed when told his team mate had taken pole position off him.

Ricciardo moved in front of Massa with his final run and Vettel took fourth – but believed he could have found the missing three tenths of a second needed to challenge for pole.

That pushed Alonso down to a familiar fifth place while Raikkonen didn’t even get to do his final run after the team spotted a problem with his power unit and told him to stop.

Top ten in Q3

1Lewis HamiltonMercedes1’45.681
2Nico RosbergMercedes1’45.688
3Daniel RicciardoRed Bull-Renault1’45.854
4Sebastian VettelRed Bull-Renault1’45.902
5Fernando AlonsoFerrari1’45.907
6Felipe MassaWilliams-Mercedes1’46.000
7Kimi RaikkonenFerrari1’46.170
8Valtteri BottasWilliams-Mercedes1’46.187
9Kevin MagnussenMcLaren-Mercedes1’46.250
10Daniil KvyatToro Rosso-Renault1’47.362

2014 Singapore Grand Prix

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Author information

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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88 comments on “Hamilton pips Rosberg to crucial Singapore pole”

  1. Best Q3 session of the season. Have the other teams genuinely caught up to Mercedes? Monaco wasn’t this close.

    1. Or could it be their new gear ratios?

      1. I agree with the gear ratios theory …. the cars are 5 seconds slowers per lap in australia …. but today the gap was under 3 seconds !

    2. i think it was a combination of the track’s lack of long straights leveling the performance of the engines and the tyres being the major factor in grip. closes everything up

      1. Yeah, Merc haven’t been too good at getting the super softs to work this year.

    3. It’s all down to the characteristics of this track. Sure other teams closer now than they were in Monaco but expect bigger gaps when we go to other tracks.

    4. When they turned up the engines it was still a considerable gap though, neither Hamilton nor Rosberg deserved the front row. Hamilton had a big lock up and wasn’t too tidy on a few corners, and Rosbergs lap was a bit scrappy.

      I haven’t seen the on-board from Ricciardo, but he, Alonso and Massa really seem to be performing well in qualifying today.

      1. After that lock up, he pretty much had a prefect lap so I don’t know what you were watching.

      2. Performing well and getting the results their car can do, I say this Qualy was a good test for the Merc boys, for once it didn’t look guaranteed and who know what Kimi could have achieved.

      3. Of course he deserved it, he kept his head and clawed back invaluable time

      4. It’s not like if TV didn’t show little mistakes from other drivers that they didn’t happened.

        It’s OK if you want to say that the best performances of this Q3 were from other drivers but that HAM and ROS didn’t deserve to be on the front, no, that’s a little too much.

        Someone has to be on the better car. It was the same guy for the last 4 years and i never saw someone saying that he didn’t deserve even one of his poles.

  2. Best Q3 of the season. Have the other teams genuinely caught up to Mercedes? Monaco wasn’t this close.

  3. Rosberg apparently didn’t have a new set of tyres for his final run in Q3.

    1. Hahaha, nice try but you predicted wrong! Rosberg didn’t have new tyres for his FIRST run. And he wasted a set of tyres in Q2 anyway.

    2. Yes, he used them in Q2

    3. The top 10 are given a fresh set after Q2, so that can’t be true. He did have to use an extra set after he wasn’t quick enough in Q2.

    4. Formula Indonesia (@)
      20th September 2014, 15:56

      As a Rosberg fan, he made an error in Q2 so Hamilton deserve the pole, even though both of them made mistakes

      1. What should really worry Nico is that Lewis took pole despite the heavy lockup on final lap.

        1. @supremacy That and the fact that he is starting on the dirty side of the track. That was his real frustration I think.

    5. His ‘mistake’ wasn’t a big error, it was an unloaded wheel, which if you do the maths, cost him 0.02 of a second. His 3rd sector was 0.1 tenth better than Hamiltons, you’d be hard pushed to argue that as ‘much better’.

  4. I don’t think that 1st starting position is crucial. Tomorrow there will be some accidents/safety cars, so it is difficult to predict. I would love to see Kimi higher on the grid, it is a shame that he had problems in the key moment of the quali.
    Hopefully, Ferrari will do good job in the race.

    1. Well it is for the very reason you give. Starting 1st helps incase people decide to crash into each other into turn 1. Starting second however isn’t that bad, if you get a good start you need 1st place to get a bad one otherwise it will be like Vettel vs Nico last year, Nico beat him to turn one but braked late and run wide. Either way it will be interesting as its raining pretty hard in Singapore right now, I don’t know how they will manage if it rains tomorrow.

    2. Wherever the race is, P1 is always the best position to start. No doubt pole is more determinant in some circuits than others but it’s always the best place to start.

      On Kimi, gutted to see his Ferrari giving up when he was performing so well.

    3. Singapore has always been won from pole. The only exceptions are 2008(we know how that went down) and 2012 when Lewis, who was on pole, got a DNF from the lead of the race

  5. What an exciting Qualifying session! I was soo disappointed with Ferrari’s result. They should’ve had 3rd place with Alonso at least! I am hoping for a great battle for the lead and for 3rd place between the Ferraris, red Bulls and Williams!

  6. I’m starting to find really strange how this guy always manages to misplace Bottas and Massa’s names.
    The guy who was at the top of the time sheet with Ricciardo on the first run of Q3 was Massa, not Bottas.

    1. I was thinking the same thing…

    2. @keithcollantine You have Massa and Bottas mixed up in the Q3 section, Massa was on provisional pole with Dan, not Bottas.

      1. Maybe he prefers Bottas?

        1. @viscountviktor Maybe it is a simple error, why read to much into this, the first guy in this chain alleges always, where is the proof and what Keith have to gain from it? it is a simple error dude, we are all human at the end of the day.

  7. Sem (@05abrahamsemere)
    20th September 2014, 15:35

    Poor Vettel..will his humuliation at the hands of his team mate ever end?

    1. Less than half a tenth, it’s hardly humiliating.

      1. @yobo01
        It’s actually quite humiliating as it’s been happening all year long.

        RIC struggled against VERNE, and is now consistently beating Vettel.
        It kind of tells you where Vettel is with regards to the talent on the grid.

    2. What are you basing this statement on, Qualy?

      1. Based of everything!
        Ric finished almost every race except 1 ahead of Vettel securing 6 podiums with 3 wins, compared to Vettels only 2 podiums. He also out-qualified him several times with his first season with RB in an equally matched car with his salary 20-30 times less than his team-mate!
        Stop it Vettel fans! Just stop more arguments that he didn’t get any practice, etc. A guy who won 4 WC and several times in Singapore, and years of simulator work, a practice shouldn’t affect much! And even then, how many times this year?! He’s been just too lucky to win 4WDC unlike Michael Schumacher who did help Ferrari with “actual development” and then reaping the fruit.

        1. Stop being ridiculous. Even though they have experience the practice and runs before race is very important for every driver to get a rhythm.

        2. A guy, who has been beaten by his rookie team without any F1 experience before, is now considered amongst the best of all time. His name: Alonso.

          1. @xenomorph91
            No he’s not considered the best.
            For exactly that reason.

          2. I’m Alonso fan myself, but his case is a bit different. He was just only beaten with no point difference, not with no. of win difference, neither no. of podium difference. They actually competed and fought evenly and they both are one of the best drivers on the grid.

            Vettel didn’t even have to move to other team / car to prove he can be beaten by some other team-mate. Let’s see how he’ll do in 2015 with same line up! No whining and complains next year with same team and same team-mate.
            He may move to Ferrari or other team later . I’d actually want to see how he does one more year with Dan alonside him. That might convince me a bit if he’s a great driver or not, and then again he needs to prove in other team – Ferrari or any other [beating team-mates even there]

          3. @functor On the other hand Ricciardo isn’t a rookie.

          4. @davidnotcoulthard I never said Ricciardo is a rookie,
            I said “his first season with RB in an equally matched car with his salary 20-30 times less than his team mate”

            It’s just @xenomorph91 just commented about 2007 season which was a special case when one of them was rookie.

        3. @05abrahamsemere @functor What’s it like, being a fan of a sport in which you believe someone can win four world championships without having any particular talent or skills of note? Pretty fulfilling?

          1. Well my argument is simple – he’s overrated when compared with other drivers on grid. Dan proved it! So will Hulk or Kvyat or Bottas if put in same team alongside Vettel. He just had some wonderful years. Forget being Alonso or Lewi’s team-mate, others will prove they are better than him. It’s not like he’s old, after all he’s won 4 WDC :P

          2. That’s just the nature of F1.
            Too many things can lead to a WDC.
            Being the better driver gives you no guarantees.

          3. @functor @05abrahamsemere have you not considered the possibility that Ricciardo is simply very, very good and that a string of poor luck and just poor form is to blame for Vettel’s supposed ‘humiliation’? A humiliation which is a long way from the sort of levels that Alonso has been humiliating Raikkonen, Grosjean has been humiliating Maldonado, Bottas has been humiliating Massa and Bianchi has been humiliating Chilton?

          4. @craig-o
            Vettel was eventually going to be humiliated, coz he’s not as “great driver as he achieved or people think of him” irrespective of whether he’s in RB or if he moves to Ferrari and team up with Hulk / Alonso / Lewis / Bottas / Maybe even Grojean who’s underrated.

            As @supremacy mentioned it’s just the nature of F1, not always is the case the best/better driver gets to be in best car at right time and win the most no. of WDCs.

            Daniel is a very fast-learning and talented driver, and humiliating a 4 time WDC with fair margin is no joke (unlike the case of Alonso & Kimi where both are champions and experienced ).
            Definitely a future World Champion if he gets the right machine [maybe even this year LOL – who knows what can happen with this stupid Double Points :P]

            But if you’re Vettel fan, then so be it. I’m not (although I’d appreciate him on the day he drives good)
            Fan wars will go forever, problem is when the fanboys don’t accept others are better. Being a fan is different from saying “he’s the best”.
            Although I like Alonso and want him to win, at the same time I do support Lewis, and Daniel or Bottas or whoever is better, and realize the bad show when they do any.

          5. @supremacy is right, F1 WDC can fall in your lap if you are a very good driver and everything falls into place, most importantly the car not only needs to be fast but needs to suit your style of driving,(look at how Kimi struggles with Fernando style Ferrari) then you need reliability, good luck and smart people on the pitwall. Vettel will be back but another 4 WDC are unlikely.

          6. And here I find myself left with no answer to my original question. So the championship can simply “fall in your lap” four times in a row? How could anyone be interested in a sport like that?

    3. Here is Webber’s opinion on Vettel’s problems this year. I think he nailed it.

      1. I don’t fully agree with Mark Webber, @paeschl
        He says that Raikkonen’s experience plays against him, but his teammate as even more experience, and started the same here, so had all the same type of cars. Alonso doesn’t seem to be suffering from any problems, unless people believe that Ferrari is under-performing cause both their drives have issues with the characteristics of the car.

        Nevertheless is point about Vettel is also the official view, I believe that staff from Red Bull have mentioned that. I also believe that Vettel is suffering cause the power-dellivery of these cars are very different (I believe this is more the issue than the other changes as Vettel have experienced big changes in aero rules too).
        I believe that Webber is also wrong when he claims that Vettel inherited his bad luck, as the statistics shown here by @keithcollantine indicated that Webber had not many more car issues than Vettel during their years as teammates.

        But his opinion about Vettel actual leads me to the whole discussion about Vettel not being so good, as pointed out by @functor.
        He has some valid points and I also agree that Vettel is not THAT GOOD as the 4 WDCs would suggest. But a medium driver would not have won 4 WDCs even if driving a Red Bull (just look at Webber, which is a good driver but not great).
        It is my belief that Vettel has issues driving these cars. He cannot apply his driving style that lead to his many wins before and then his shortcomings are displayed, as he cannot adapt himself and gets beaten (not ridiculed but soundly beaten) by his teammate which was not at all outstanding when driving for Toro-Rosso (like someone said, JEV matched RIC during their time together). To conclude, Vettel is a too driver, capable of great performances, great laps and great fights, but only really dominating when driving the “perfect” car

      2. In my last sentence I wanted to write: “Vettel is a TOP driver(…)”

    4. It seems that the humiliation was smaller than you thought

  8. I’m glad Keith didn’t mention the lock-up in turn one, because I think the lock-up Rosberg had in turn 13 was about the same time-wise. Great laps from both drivers!

    1. Ham did a 28.2 on is first run in Q3 and made mistake in 2nd sector He did a 28.3(which was fastest) with a lockup on 2nd run he could have done a 28.0/28.1 otherwise. Ros was not very good today thats for sure he pulled one out though so respect for that.

      1. As always, Dan, you are absolutely right! The real Yoda of F1…. Not even going to bother to argue with you

      2. Where are you getting Hamilton setting a 28.0 from?? You’re doing a whole lot of speculating. Hamilton had a faultless last sector yet was still way slower than Nico. Rosberg was the quicker driver yet blew it.

    2. Rosbergs lockup was very small, it was definately not on par with the 2 tenths that Lewis lost through his lockup at T1. Lewis must have also put a flatspot on his tyres with that lockup.

      Going to be a really interesting race tomorrow. Lewis should keep the lead off the start bar a really bad start but I can see Rosberg losing 2nd unless his start is absolutely perfect. I’d quite like him to lose 2nd maybe end up down 4th or 5th just to see how he handles having to fight through the field a bit as it’s not something we’ve seen him have to do very often this year.

      The danger for Lewis is if Rosberg gets a start like he did last year against Vettel, Vettel forced him wide last year but I wouldn’t be surprised if Rosberg just sits there if Lewis tries to do the same thing based on Spa.

      No doubt there will be an “issue” in the pits on one of Lewis’s stops and throw it away, Ricciardo to pounce on the issue and take another win.

      1. I doubt that lock-up was a flat spot inducing lock-up

        Definitely gonna be a killer race tomorrow, safety car(s) and much elbows out, dicey overtakes.

        Should be great!

  9. So, a must-watch race coming up :)

    1. Usually I get bored watching Singapore gp till the end. But I will definitely be watching tomorrow’s race completely. It is so close between Merc pairs and RBR & Ferrari seems to have catched them, so hopefully it will be very intresting race.

    2. Indeed, probably maybe even the most exciting race to watch, because of long time, interesting competition among Ferrari, Merc, RB, Weather going a bit rainy, Safety car coming out, and also the new radio restrictions on top of all this.
      Looking forward. I’ve a feeling one of the Ferrari might get lucky with a safety car & strategy.
      If Lewis Finishes, he will either win or at-least podium [that’s his statistics this year].
      If Daniel can pull this one off for a win, then hats of to him! What a season for him!

  10. bloody engine homologation. this is the track that proves redbull and Ferrari have a better chassis then Mercedes – and redbull/Ferrari drivers drove so well in qualifying, and are still beaten by 2 drivers that had driving errors in qualifying just because of a better engine – it shouldn’t be this way, I want to see the best drivers at the front again.

    1. We were given enough of examples this year that Mercedes is the best car even excluding the engine.
      You are overestimating the difference the engine makes on a low speed track like this one.

      Williams uses the same engine spec as Mercedes and this time didn’t look so strong.
      Probably because only the Mercedes engine wasn’t enough to put them ahead of 2 better cars than theirs.

      1. We were given enough of examples this year that Mercedes is the best car even excluding the engine.

        Meh, if they all had the same power unit, I would bet my money on Red Bull

        1. @paeschli, so thank goodness RBR don’t have Mercedes power or the grid would look like Noahs gangplank with the animals lined up 2 by 2 every race.

    2. @kpcart
      I don’t know why one part should be more important than the others, if Ferrari and Redbull have such a good chassis as you claim then give them the credit for that, likewise if Mercedes made the best PU then they deserve the reward for that.

      But the reality is that Mercedes is not the only team with that engine and they are still on top, that tells us that they have the best combination to make use of the current formula.

      I think LH and NR are doing what every other F1 drivers with a dominant cars do…make the best of it, you don’t become champion without that combination of the best car and driver who capitalizes on it ala Vettel, Michael S, Senna and so on.

      Lastly, Redbull had 4 years of domination, I am sure people on the other side of the fence were complaining like you are, F1 has always been like this and I hope it stays this way, sometimes you are ahead, sometimes you are behind.

      1. well said @jpcart,
        i would love to see, say a 1 year old Red Bull car take part in a best driver award,
        like each driver can do 50laps in the car to set it up then with a fresh set of tires do his fastest 3lap times,
        this is all drivers on the grid today have a go,
        i would say we might be surprised at who is the fastest, infact i would be guessing and say Alonso with the same car as everyone else could be the fastest driver on the grid,
        trouble is Burnie would never allow such a thing to happen, because now we would know who is the better driver and as it stands he do’s not want that to happen…

      2. The issue here is that engine you can’t develop, chassis you can.
        So any advantage on engine is lasting, you can’t really catch up in this area.
        Is this unwise and unfair? Probably yes.

        Being the best in F1 should also be about the rate at which you can improve, and this is impaired by the engine homologation.

        1. @stefanauss The rules were clear and both Renault and Ferrari had ample time to develop their engine, I don’t think a midseason change to the rules to bring them into contention is right. Let Mercedes get the fruits of their labour this year and next year everyone can make improvements.

          Even the chassis improvement are fairly limited with the restrictions on wind tunnel time and CFD, look at the comments from McLaren, who by the way share the same engine but are struggling to match Mercedes.

          1. Didn’t suggest a change of rules mid-season. Goddes knows we have plenty of those already. I think the rule is wrong, but it’s way more important that it gets respected now that it is in place, so please let Mercedes dominate in peace.

            Wind Tunnel and CFD doesn’t apply, because those restrictions still give room for catching up if you use *the same time* available to everyone else’s better.
            Engine homologation doesn’t. Not even close, certainly not enough in my opinion.
            My say on the matter is: if a component of the car is not the same for everyone, you have to give room for in-season development in some form. Restricted, cost-minding all you want, but it has to be there.

        2. @stefanauss but isn’t it a case of copying? Why should everyone else be able to copy Merc’s clever ideas straight away? They’re going to be copying them for next year as it is. I’d have thought producing the best engine and then getting to race it for one season is fair enough.

          And as it is Ferrari and Renault have had plenty to do with software and integration.

          1. Again: not saying *Mercedes* did anything unfair.
            I think the rule is, and it’s also very unF1-esque.
            On top of that, applying the homologation just after a major shift in the rules, it’s just bad implementation.

            “Why should everyone else be able to copy Merc’s clever ideas straight away?”
            Because cop… being inspired by other’s designs, and building incrementally, has always been a part of F1. It has always worked perfectly well, the best in the field still being able to be that, the best and faster in the field. I don’t see any reason why that should change.

          2. @lockup, I’d like a flat-out engine development race but if Mercedes, Ferrari, Honda and Renault can’t afford that then I agree absolutely that Merc deserve to benefit from their superior PU design without the artificial homogenisation we saw with the last V8 rule. I hate it when the engine is irrelevant in F1.

    3. Haha thats why Merc were destroyed in Monaco…..,

    4. the Mercedes have been incredibly quick everywhere, from Monaco, to Canada, from Melbourne, to Spa.

      And besides, they are running under the same specs as the others. No point blaming them from doing a good job. What do you want, then, even engines and chassis making the different? it’ll be exactly the same as you criticize but the other way round.

      Nonsense.

    5. Don’t fooled by the fact TV coverage doesn’t show you ALL of the lock-ups and mistakes by other drivers.

  11. The Ferrari drivers were unable to take advantage as Valtteri Bottas and Daniel Ricciardo claimed the provisional front row

    Bottas???

  12. Wow loved the Q3 session.
    Mercedes just proved they not only have the best power train but also the best drivers !

  13. Poor Kimi. :(

  14. Best qualifying of the year, just a shame Raikkonen didn’t get that last lap in Q3.

  15. Very painfull for Vettel.

    People always said that saying it was only the car was not true because MW was no slouch. Well at this point I’m tempted to say ge was, or at least that he had difficulty with the car a la Raikkonen vs Alonso this year.

    Ricciardo is beating him time and time again. The differemce is even bigger in the races where Vettel seems to be a lesser racer (especially working through traffic) than RIC is. Vettel might be exceptionally good at honing in one clean lap after another when he is leading, but quite a few drivers can win from the front. Not many can do what RIC has shown this yr and that incl Vettek I’m afraid.

  16. I think they real surprise will ne Riccardo. I think he can be a real pain in Mercedes` back if he performs a nice start.

  17. As in Spain, as the qualifying and practice sessions evolved it was Rosberg’s car that appeared notably more stable and compliant, and yet Hamilton still managed pole. However whilst his Spanish pole was an artistic and at times acrobatic study of oversteer control, in Singapore Hamilton was fabulously inventive to combat the front load issues his car seemed to have; often using the throttle to turn the car in the slow speed and destabilizing the rear over curbs in the chicanes to rotate the chassis around the front end. Driving artistry, and a thoroughly enjoyable watch for a vehicular dynamic looser like me…

    Also, in the past when Lewis has made mistakes early on in a lap, the rest of the lap tended to be scruffy too. And yet this time the rest of the lap was nigh on perfect, and perhaps an indicator of Lewis’ current mentality. He will be virtually impossible to beat tomorrow.

    1. He wouldn’t go that far mate, Rosberg was quite abit quicker in the last sector, also his PB’s for the first two sectors were set in Q2. Rosberg had the pace over Lewis but couldn’t put it together.

      1. Ultimate laptimes:

        Rosberg: 28.292 – 40.466 – 36.880 = 1.45.638 (+0.077)
        Hamilton: 28.207 – 40.360 – 36.994 = 1.45.561

  18. I notice no driver is separated from his team mate by more than 1 car, much more obvious ‘pairing off’ than at any other race this year.

    Bit of a point and squirt circuit perhaps, not so much the driver can do to alter things?

  19. Having watched both laps and looking at the sector times, Rosberg blew pole at turn 10. He hit the curb way too hard and that compromised him big time through 11 and 12, that mistake cost Nico way more time by the lockups that both driver suffered from.

    Rosberg was much quicker than Lewis through the final sector so he only has himself to blame for the middle sector mistake, he was the faster driver but mistakes happen.

  20. Have even more respect for Hamilton after today. Keep focused and attacked in that last lap. He would have massacred Rosberg if he had avoided that lock-up. He seemed to be fairly melancholic in previous weekends but seemed more collected today. I wish him a incident free race

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