“I was clearly quickest today” – Hamilton

2014 Brazilian Grand Prix

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Lewis Hamilton said he was disappointed to miss out on victory in Brazil as he felt he was the quicker of the two Mercedes drivers.

Hamilton spun while he was pushing to jump ahead of team mate Nico Rosberg during the second round of pit stops.

“Naturally you’ll be disappointed when you make a mistake, and I did,” he told reporters after the race. “But it felt great out there, I still caught up, I didn’t give up, I kept pushing, and ultimately that’s what’s most important.”

Hamilton admitted he was taken by surprise when his race engineer told him to stay out for two laps after Rosberg’s second pit stop. It was on the second lap that he spun.

“The protocol is – it has been, at least for some time – when he says to push that means generally I’m coming in that lap,” Hamilton explained. “So I want to maximise, which I did, and then I wasn’t coming in.”

“So it took me a little bit by surprise and the rear tyres were dead at the end of that one lap that I did.”

“It’s not a big issue, I mean obviously we lost some points today, and I was clearly quickest today so in one respect obviously he made a mistake and it’s a little bit disappointing on that side of things but secondly we’ve got another one-two, we’ve broken the record as a team and we’ve had great weather today and I enjoyed the race.”

2014 Brazilian 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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111 comments on ““I was clearly quickest today” – Hamilton”

  1. Rosberg won the race, therefore he was clearly quickest.

    1. Way i seen it Nico dominated but come race day Ham was faster, Ham could not stay close through ssector 2, Ham had the race won, how can you say Nico was clearly faster lol Ham came back from 7 seconds down. Yet again Ros race pace leaves alot to be desired

    2. Sure he was….

      Had a 7.5 seconds lead and then to see it come down to 6 tenths…. Yup, sure he was quicker

      1. Nico’s engineer told him to slow down after Lewis went off.
        Nico also said himself after the race that he was always managing the gap to save his tyres.

        1. @mark

          I’m not sure I buy that though. I’m sure some tyre management was going on to begin with, but once the gap got around 3-4 seconds it seemed both were pushing pretty hard. I also can’t imagine Rosberg willingly let his team mate close the gap so much.

          1. Yeah, in the post race interview Toto said Rosberg was struggling in the middle stint.

            TBH I think the comment was just mind games, the tires were so marginal that neither could show their ultimate race pace. Hamilton showed that even an extra half a lap of pushing too much and the tires let go.

        2. @mark

          His engineer only told him not to push after the spin, before that he was pushing like crazy, because the lap lewis did before, was good enough to bring out in front with a good pitstop.

      2. OF course he was quicker, he had 7.5 sec. Gap, he was 7.5 sec quicker, then HAM reduced it BUT not enough to win so he was NOT the quickest driver, is simple, Nico won, Nico was the quickest, what is so difficult to understand?

    3. Michael (@freelittlebirds)
      9th November 2014, 19:24

      @x Lewis made up 7.5 seconds so I think we can safely say that Lewis was quickest. Nico had a fantastic race – he won but he wasn’t the best driver. The mistake to push for 2 laps and the extra second in the pits proved too expensive.

      Couple that with the 25 points from Australia and the loss of 25 points at Spa and Lewis couldn’t really take any crazy chances and risk throwing 18 points away – the price of winning was just too prohibitive for Lewis unlike Nico’s gamble at Spa where he had the points to squander and in fact came out with more points.

      Lewis is very unlucky – had they not resurfaced Interlagos he would have won. I wish I could send Nico to buy me a lottery ticket:-)

      1. Rosberg opened up a 7.5 second gap so we can clearly say Rosberg was quickest. End of the day this is just Hamiltons attempt at mind games – always needs to have say something about himself being the best.

        1. Rosberg didn’t open up a 7.5 gap though did he? What are you trying to prove?

          1. Of coarse he opened up a 7.5 second gap -how can you say he did not? By being more consistent and not making mistakes he found himself 7.5 seconds ahead of Hamilton – fact. It does not help to be fast if you can’t keep it on the road.

          2. The same way that Hamilton didnt open up a 30 second gap on the fitst lap of Sochi. There is a big semantic difference between one driver opening a gap and the other just throwing time away.

    4. I think Lewis was quicker even though I think Rosberg had the most efficient lines on Interlagos, again I think he was too safe. I think Nico had excessive front left wear, unlike Lewis. No blisters on the fronts for Lewis but Nico had lots of it. Lewis was also quicker on pit stops and pit lane time so more aggressive in and out.

    5. I know right, all thi mention of ‘Hamilton caught back up’ etc etc by his fans. For one thing you don’t know what engine modes etc they used all race. Secondly, and more importantly HAMILTON SPUN OFF! If it wasn’t 2014 with all the nanny run off areas he would have been out of the race in the sandtrap, just like Rubens Barichello in 1996.

      If not for nanny run off tarmac like we have everywhere nowdays Hamilton would have been out of the race and 2nd in the championship going into the final round….. bear that in mind Hamilton fans when you go on about how fast it is…. Its EASY to push like hell when there isn’t really any price to pay for making a mistake. Not the 1st time this season this has happened either…

      1. you could say the same about almost the entire field. rosberg at monza? that could easily have been a hakkinen.

  2. Course you was as you stayed on his tail unlike Nico who could not come back in USA, mistake cost him but great drive needs to just make sure he gets away well and dial the car back let Nico scamper off.

  3. This is what I’ve been missing in Rosberg on quite some occasions. Hamilton has nothing else to do than to cruise to second in Abu Dhabi to secure the title but he’s still unhappy he didn’t won today. Well, there’s always 2015 to win Interlagos as I don’t think the Merc advantage will be gone in the slightest.

    1. ColdFly F1 (@)
      10th November 2014, 3:41

      @xtwl, agree!
      BTW: tutu-time?

      1. @coldfly Yeah; but where can I find a tutu for a grown up man?

        1. @xtwl

          We can order it and have it posted on to you no worries,

          @coldfly Pink ?

          1. ColdFly F1 (@)
            11th November 2014, 0:29

            something like this.
            (@greg-c, @xtwl)

          2. Where is that post BTW ?

          3. Is that really PorscheF1?

  4. Love Lewis’ DO or DIE attitude.

    Mega drive!

    1. That mistake cost him the lead. Sky made a very good simulation supporting this claim.

      1. @jcost Afaik the Sky simulation assumed his sectors repeated from the first Push lap to the second, but I don’t think that’s realistic, really. The tyres were only good for one lap at that pace. When Lewis went off the rears didn’t stick after the first correction because they were finished.

        Whether the off cost him the win by allowing Rosberg to save his tyes? Maybe.

  5. Yeah the same way Rosberg was quicker in Bahrain and Spain. Right?

    1. In Bahrain Hamilton had quite a big lead before the safety car was called out. I can’t remember exactly but somewhere between 7-10 seconds I think. So I’d say Hamilton was the faster in the race yes, especially as Rosberg was also using the faster engine mode.

      1. @f190
        In the middle stint Rosberg was on primes and Hamilton was on options.

        In the first stint Rosberg was faster than Hamilton in Bahrain, he was also quicker than Lewis in Spain. At the end of the day, that is all irrelevant.

        1. @kingshark

          But we saw in the last stint the options weren’t that much quicker than the primes. After all, Rosberg couldn’t get past with the faster car and faster tyres.

          1. @f190

            Haha the same way Hamilton couldnt pass in a faster car today.

      2. In the second stint Hamilton was on the much faster tyre hence the big lead before the safety car was called out

      3. Yes Lewis had a lead of 10 sec or so before safety car came. But it was hamilton who said that Rosberg was faster than him and still he won the race. Even in the first stint Rosberg tried to pass hamilton before pit stops but he failed.

        My whole argument is about only 1 thing. If you are faster then someone you should be in front of them, not behind.

        Even today Lewis closed down the gap of 7 seconds, but Tony Ross asked Rosberg not to push as Lewis made a mistake. So there was no point of putting extra pressure on your power unit when you are clear in lead.

        1. @mjf1fan

          I don’t think Hamilton was using a higher engine mode than Rosberg today, although nothings been said of course.

          1. And what about spain then? :P

            We both can go round and round and argue about this matter, but the fact is Lewis won bahrain and Spain…and Rosberg won Brazil.. So let the result speak for themselves :)

    2. Interesting result. Rosberg won, closed the points gap and will obviously gain confidence from Hamiltons mistake and taking the pole position. That said, he must also worry about Hamilton’s race pace. Rosberg had no answer when Hamilton started closing back in. Had Hamilton made the jump in the stops its likely he would have built up a 4-7 second gap. Of course we’ll never know, but I think if Rosberg had an answer he wouldn’t have let the gap get smaller than 2-4 seconds. Its interesting that both drivers can take a big chunk of confidence from this one. Rosberg because he raced well, won and had a perfect weekend. Hamilton because he knows he had the race pace advantage again despite losing pole. I also don’t think Hamilton will loose much confidence with the spin. It was an error, but burnt up tyres looked to play a part as well. In a strange way it could actually be helpful for him to just settle him down a little for the last race and know not to make the same mistake again. After all better to make it today and still bag solid points than make it in the next race and cost him a championship.

      1. Ok for once I agree with you that Lewis was quicker and Rosberg had no answer for lewis’s pace. Doesnt it throw some bad light on lewis with regards to that he needs a long straight with drs to get past rosberg and when it comes to pure proper race tracks, he couldn’t pass?

        1. Pure proper race tracks like Suzuka you mean ;)

          1. Yup…I forgot about it. COTA was in my mind when I wrote that comment, but even COTA is an amazing addition to the calender.

          2. Completely agree with you there and I do understand your point, but I think you also have to consider how much harder it is to pass a driver in the same car.

            For me the more impressive element is that once Hamilton makes the pass he usually has the pace to instantly pull a gap.

        2. @mjf1fan DRS is a questionable feature of F1. And yes, Lewis has used it to pass Rosberg.
          But you miss a couple of important factors to make a DRS pass and pull away.
          First he has to catch and stay with Rosberg, which Lewis nearly always does. After the DRS assisted pass, he then has to pull away so Rosberg can’t try the same move.
          Lewis can only maintain this by being the faster driver.

          1. @psynrg

            We all know that Lewis is faster than Rosberg, but it is not by a huge margin. He is marginally faster than Rosberg which is a surprise considering Lewis is regarded as the (debatable)fastest driver of this generation.

            Rosberg won the race fair and square, if Lewis was “really quicker” he should have passed Rosberg and maintained a sufficient gap of 2-3 seconds from Rosberg. After Lewis made a mistake and spun off the track, there was no need for putting extra pressure on power unit and tyres by Rosberg. Rosberg controlled the race very well.

            When Lewis was within 1 second of Rosberg, I thought its game over for Rosberg but it didn’t happen. In fact Lewis couldn’t get his front tyres across the rear tyres of Rosberg for once despite being ” clearly quicker”.

            I’m no Rosberg fan and defending him, but just giving him credit where he deserves it. He was faster than Hamilton the whole weekend, be it practice sessions or qualifying or race day.

            After reading so many comments on this post, it seems to me that Hamilton fans cannot praise any other driver when they deserve it after beating Hamilton fair and square.

  6. Trenthamfolk (@)
    9th November 2014, 19:26

    Rosberg’s mirrors were full of Hamilton, so he knew it too… Ham even spun out and caught up in an equal machine… but hey, Rosberg won the race without cheating (again) or messing up (again) so credit to him.

    1. Hamilton spun into what used to be a gravel trap and got off scott free thanks to a tarmac run off rather than losing the championship lead for pushing too hard and making a mistake, so yeah good on him too hey… Notice no Hamilton fans mention this when protesting ‘but he was faster’!

    2. You’re just stirring trying to say Rosberg cheats. Please don’t do that.

      Rosberg both deserved and earnt the win because he didn’t spin out. Hamilton may be faster, but he spun. It’s as simple as that.

  7. Hamilton please use head in last race and finish 2nd. No drama with anyone.

    Does anyone think Rosberg will try what Lorenzo tried on Marques last season in Moto GP at last race. Where he tried to bog the field in an attempt to force error from Marques. People who saw will clearly know what I mean. It’s not impossible in F1, though repassing is an issue. Anyway Rosberg does not have b@lls to try that.

    1. It wouldn’t work. Lewis would just use DRS on one of the straights and be long gone.

    2. The last race in MotoGP was today. I watched the race. So, what ‘last season’ you are referring to if this was the season when Marques came to MotoGP?

      1. @slava I think he’s reffering to the 2013 season when Marc Marquez first came in MotoGP and won the title.

        1. Gosh, I missed something. The time is going fast. Somehow I thought that this year was 2013 (I almost didn’t watch MotoGP as it was even more boring than F1).
          So sorry.

      2. Uhhh… You might want to check who took the 2013 MotoGP crown.

        1. MM won in 2013 so what is you’re point Matt

          1. Look at who I’m replying to and my point should be plenty clear ;)

      3. Semantics of the English language. Today’s race was the last race of THIS season. He was referring to 2013 when he said last season.

  8. lewis and nico have been pretty consistent this year. Nico is a bit faster on single lap, while lewis is a bit faster on race pace. this has been the trend in many races so far. of course this means that lewis is in a good position to win even when starting second.

  9. I genuinely believe that Mercedes mistake costed Lewis the win. I was stunned to hear Lewis saying they wanted him to do two laps. That is just unheard of. You always make the driver push in the last lap to use as much life of the tyres as you can and box for a new set of boots. For them to say do another lap is just weird.

    My only theory is may be Nico side of the garage heard that message go out and knew Lewis will be pushing. So they delayed their pit stop an extra lap knowing Lewis will be without any grip. Conspiracy theory, right there!

    1. LotsOfControl (@for-unlawful-carnal-knowledge)
      9th November 2014, 19:40

      ha ha ha ha

    2. The Mercedes drivers do not have their own strategists. So no, they couldn’t have done that.

  10. Rosberg was faster in every session this weekend and won the race. Sure Hamilton was fastest – not.

    1. Hamilton set the fastest lap in the race and also closed down a 7.5 second gap. Therefore he was the faster driver today.

      1. That’s like saying Valtteri was the fastest in Sochi because he made the fastest lap.
        And it doesn’t matter if you close the gap, you still have to overtake and Lewis wasn’t able to do that.

        1. well not really, because Bottas didn’t close down a 7.5 second gap in Sochi, Hamilton wasn’t pushing and Rosberg pitted much earlier than Bottas. So those times are slightly mis-matched. I completely agree, he couldn’t make the move stick, but that doesn’t mean he didn’t have the fastest race pace. Not that it really matters of course.

        2. @kroonracing @miko-jarvinen He can still be faster though. If there were two sprinters, but one had to do 100m and one had to do 90m, and then at the end the one who only had to do 90m finished only 1m ahead of the one who did 100m, who’s faster? Didn’t win, but still was faster.
          Same here, Hamilton was clearly faster, fact. Didn’t win though because he couldn’t overtake. Still faster. Rosberg was quicker in Spain, sometimes that’s just how it is.

          1. They both did 71 laps in the race I watched. A better (more correct anyway) analogy is two sprinters doing 100 m except one of them stumbled at the 70 meter mark and ended up losing by a meter.

            At the end of the day the driver two did 71 laps the quickest was Rosberg. Fact.

    2. @kroonracing Hamilton was referring to just the race, and there’s plenty if evidence to back up his claim. Rosberg was unable to pull out of DRS, and had a 7.5 seconmd advantage wiped out in one stint, when both drivers were confirmed to be pushing to their maximum. So, yes, Hamilton absolutely was the faster of the two, IN THE RACE, which is what he’s saying and has been the case for most of the season.

      1. Evidence: At the start of the race the distance between Rosberg and Hamilton was 8 meters. At the end it was at least 50-60 meters. Rosberg was faster over the race distance.
        Hamilton was faster over a single lap today, but being faster over a single lap was the task for yesterday and not worth anything today.

        1. But that doesn’t add up, as moving speed vs stand still are totally different. Also technically they wouldn’t have done the exact same race distance.

  11. “I was clearly quickest today. Sorry for my rookie mistake though.” – Hamilton

    1. How exactly was it a rookie mistake, if your race engineer tells you to push for a single lap with the protocol of pitting at the end because the tires are spent, but then has you push another lap on rubber that isn’t going to stick (something a race engineer should clearly know) and you can’t control the car due to lack of grip…

      I don’t see how that is a rookie mistake @ruliemaulana. Perhaps you can give better context? Or is this one of those “gotta make a comment in spite of a driver I don’t like”?

  12. Rosberg was quickest in Bahrain? He was quickest in the final part because of the tyre strategy hamilton had a 10 sec advantage before the safetycar.he brilliantly defended Rosbergs fresh soft tyres with his old medium tyre.that was awesome driving pure class.

    1. Rosberg was also faster on the first stint with equal tyres, hence the attack on the last lap before they pitted. But he failed to nail the overtake.

      1. he brilliantly defended Rosbergs fresh soft tyres with his old medium tyre.

        Their tyres were the same age, they pitted on the same lap…

  13. Oh my lord. How can one single person be this insufferable? He has this title basically secured and still needs to give off inane tripe like this. You. Lost. Nico. Won. Deal with it!
    If karma exists, his engine will go up in smoke in Abu Dhabi.

    1. @klon How disgustingly unsporting. If karma exists, both will be able to race to the end and the right one will be crowned champion. Try not to forget that Hamilton has already had one more race retirement than Nico (caused by Nico) and two in qualifying that denied him wins. Him stating the fact that he was faster (and he was) and that he had the potential to win this race (also true, if he hadn’t made his mistake) doesn’t mean he deserves to have his engine blow in Abu Dhabi. He was clearly just expressing frustration at his own mistake denying him a win that he was fast enough to achieve. What the hell is wrong with that?

      1. If karma exists Rosberg will have a failure in the next race to equalise things.

    2. @klon do you really think about the situations you’re speaking on before you speak? Probably not with the security of anonymity at your side on the internet. He was asked these questions in a certain manner and gave an answer. It’s not like he jumped on a soap box and said “hear hear, I shall tell you all about the truth of how Today really went”, no some reporter asked him he spoke in the context as asked.

      You hating the fact he spoke at all says more about how insufferable you seem to be than him, same goes for those who hate Vettel for being Vettel or Alonso for being Alonso. Get over it.

  14. He was faster in the race it’s true. But, it’s not cool to say that.

    1. Exactly. It wears thin eventually – all this ‘Hamilton is faster’ stuff. I’m not convinced he’s ‘faster’, but I am convinced he’s ‘better’.

      1. “I’m not convinced he’s ‘faster’”

        I bet you Nico is, the man was all over his mirrors after wiping off a 7 sec gap.
        I like Nico, and I think he deserves at least one WDC after totally trumping Michael Schumacher.

        Such a shame he only gets the best car when Lewis is his teammate.

  15. For me, Ham might look to be the fastest in this race, but in reality, we might never know whether this is true or not. Basically, why Ros needs to push faster and build a large gap considering the tyre degradation is relatively bad? Ros didn’t need to go faster. His times were enough to prevent Ham from overtaking him. Never once in the race Ham got a chance to overtake him (on the race track). The best Ham can do was having a look.

    1. Well clearly it was not lol, Ham would have came out ahead, in what way is Nico going to not be pushing you think he want to lose the lead.

      1. Though it was said over the race (since you seemed to have watched it) that they were both pushing all out and Nico still lost the gap. As the old story goes it’s one thing to catch up to the person, but then you have the higher task of actually passing them.

        Just because you’re fastest doesn’t mean you win, and you might want to get that black and white reality looked at.

  16. Geez can he blow that trumpet any louder

  17. Few would say Alonso was “clearly” quicker than Raikkonen today (quicker, but without the “clearly”), but he still managed to pass, so for Hamilton to claim he was “clearly quicker” than Rosberg when his front wheels never made it along side Rosberg’s rear wheels is just a load of crap.

    1. The fact that he managed to close down a 7.5 second gap, and Nico was unable to maintain a +1s gap (the minimum you’d want to break DRS) suggests that he was quicker – but not quick enough to make a pass. I’m not sure why you’d try and suggest otherwise

      1. “Clearly quicker” should have made a DRS pass easy, but he didn’t even try.

    2. Errrm, Alonso was on fresher tires. Roseberg and Hamilton where on basically the same tires.

  18. hams behaviour is just ridiculous and completely infantile. seems he is faster than his tires allow him to be….why else ham spun. ros was better this time…ham, can you dig it?!!!

    1. +1 Hamilton should count his lucky stars that there was tarmac run off and not a sandtrap where he spun as it was a few years ago. Barichello spun out there in 1996 and was out of the race instantly, beached in the sand. Real racing is where a mistake actually costs you, and you have to weigh up the risks, not just going flat out knowing that you have everything to gain and nothing to lose.

  19. I really didn’t care which one of those wins the title. Not a big fan of either of them. Since Spa, I really hope Nico wins it.

  20. Ham was quicker, as he has been all season. Let’s get this title over and done with in Abu Dhabi. Rosberg gets another shot next year.

  21. He is right, he was fastest but did not won it.
    He really had a chance to win and made a mistake, that’s the reason he is frustrated.
    It was almost impossible to overtake in equal machines.
    Just look the time took Alonso to overtake Raikkonen with much newer tyres.

  22. Nico should never of lost such a big gap to Lewis once he spun. It was in the bag for Rosberg once that happened. Regardless if Lewis was quicker (he clearly was) it was always going to be stuff to win from there, but he gave it a good shot which was at least a bit exciting for the race

  23. “I made a mistake, but it’s my engineer’s fault.”

    #WeWinandLoseTogether

    1. paul sainsbury
      10th November 2014, 8:38

      @hairs

      That is not what he said, at all. I don’t suppose that matters to you though.

      1. Well he lost the back end and was straight on the radio to blame his engineer for telling him to push on a second lap, and repeated the criticism after the race, so…

        Once his pr people got hold of him he changed his tune, as usual.

        1. @hairs
          Hahaha!

          He’s clearly faster than Nico, unfortunately we can’t take that away from him.

          Should the team have known the rear tyres were gone?….

  24. Hamilton ‘drove’ quicker today, but that doesn’t necessarily translate into ‘being’ quicker.
    Rosberg had track position advantage all through the race (Save for those few laps when pitstops intervened). This meant he could take it easier and preserve his tyres.
    How is this evidenced? In still 40+ Track temps, Rosberg was able to keep his tyres alive to stay ahead.

    Rosberg also, I believe, had pace in hand to pull away from Hamilton if needed
    How is this evidenced? Rosberg very rarely, if ever, took a defensive line into any of the corners, as he would have done if he believed he was genuinely fighting for position (as he would have, being on the ragged edge with his shot at the championship at stake)

    I would like Rosberg to win the championship so that my £10 bet I placed on him at the start of the season would pay off, but whichever driver wins, it will be because they drove well throughout the season

  25. ColdFly F1 (@)
    10th November 2014, 3:54

    LH: “I was clearly quickest today”
    NR: “I clearly won today”

    BE: “I made most money today”

    1. Haha . ..

  26. Does Hammi ever not have an excuse?

    1. paul sainsbury
      10th November 2014, 9:12

      He just answered a question.

  27. I expect that Nico would have preferred to maintain the gap at over 1 second at least, unless he was sucking Lewis into dirty air to further compromise Lewis’ tyres.
    While Lewis might claim to have been faster it’s not always enough to win an F1 race. Other important variables in order of how they affected Lewis include
    1.) Track position
    2.) Not making mistakes
    3.) Being quicker at the right section of the track (he was just so much slower in sector 2 that he was unable utilize the DRS in sector 3 and 1

  28. I think NR showed the form he has shown us before but perhaps not often enough. Mainly to combine speed with the ability to keep it all together while being pressured heavily. NR did everything he needed to do with this win, and even if it doesn’t result in the WDC I think he needed this day to come together the way it did, for his season and his career and for setting up his mindset for the off-season. I’m intrigued, after NR said after the US GP that he learned some things, what it is he learned from the last race that perhaps made the difference.

    LH comes across as a sore loser when he blames his race engineer. If LH wants to claim he was quicker, I guess he can segregate that as being because of himself being that good and no credit to his engineer, yet when he makes a mistake it’s his engineer’s fault. The protocol is – that sometimes, LH, you tell the pits how your tires are and whether or not you think you can do a few more laps on them, rather than just pitting when they say ‘box’. If LH has had the ability before, to tell the pits when he should pit, maybe he’s just mad that he blew the call this time and is taking it out on his engineer. LH hasn’t been shy before, so could have insisted on boxing a lap earlier.

  29. If this track had a long straight like Austin or Abu Double, he would have dusted Rosberg. Just as in Austin, when Hamilton got ready, he reeled in Rosberg methodically and got right on his tail, and Rosberg had no answer. Rosberg’s answer that he was managing tires is absurd. He had no reason to manage tires in the penultimate stint–it’s not like Hamilton had to pit later due to running off his tires in pursuit—and Hamilton took nearly 6s off of him in a stint. That is unheard of between teammates on the same strategy in this era. And the idea that he was comfortable just holding Hamilton back at less than a second is curious given how Hamilton picked his pocket from the same gap last race. That is not some kind of calculated gap Rosberg had. Hamilton is much quicker in races, and he was much quicker in the race this time as well.

    1. Except in sector 2 where he was so much slower that he was not able to utilize DRS in sectors 3 and 1?

  30. a set distance to be covered in the shortest possible time. this equates to the simple fact that first car across the line has covered the set distance in the shortest possible time. that car is the fastest on the day and the driver of that car is the fastest driver. no ‘if’ and no ‘buts’. facts are facts.

  31. ham seem was faster a few laps when nico stop pushing the 7.5 sec gap he built when he need,
    single lap speed is Nico by far pole trophy and all,
    ham wins only when rosberg makes mistakes,
    if ROS doesn’t make mistakes is unbeatable

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