“But there are still 17 races to go, and still 17 races I can give him hell”.
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“He hasn’t let us down and we wouldn’t let him down. But I think some of the guys take it pretty hard”.
And in a 1,100-word letter published on their website, Mercedes said: “To paraphrase Mr Toto Wolff, we have worked our a**es off to get where we are today – and we have done so as a team”.
Rosberg said the unique characteristics of the Sochi asphalt might have accounted for some of the advantage but Ferrari team principal Maurizio Arrivabene was not looking for excuses.
In Russia, another failure meant he missed the final phase of qualifying and Mercedes had to fly parts out overnight to ensure he did not start from the pitlane. My response to this is I don’t want to even ignore these lunatics who think that we would harm a driver – our driver – who has been a double world champion for us, he hasn’t let us down and we wouldn’t let him down.
“You wonder what goes through people’s minds”.
Ferrari’s Kimi Raikkonen and Williams’ Brazilian Felipe Massa will share the second row with Australian Daniel Ricciardo behind for Red Bull with Force India’s Sergio Perez sixth.
The Briton, who took pole in the first two races of the season but then made slow starts, fought back to seventh in the race in Shanghai. Nico Rosberg became only the fourth driver in Formula One history to record seven successive wins.
The red cars’ efforts were also hampered early on after Sebastian Vettel was bumped from behind by Daniil Kvyat not once but twice, causing a puncture and sending the Ferrari straight to the barrier.
“But beyond that it’s not my focus”, Rosberg said when asked about the streak that started in Mexico last November.
Hamilton said: “My guys are doing a fantastic job and it’s not their fault”.
“What’s pretty key is that we understand what it is, more so than before, and try and be careful in how we pick out all the engines because obviously I have only three for the rest of the year”.
“I felt very strong with where we had the set-up, very happy and it was just another race I wasn’t fully able to exploit that”.
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The punishment was seen by some as excessive, given that the session was over and he was merely repositioning the auto a matter of centimeters.
