Nico Rosberg will start the inaugural race around the Baku Street Circuit from pole position after a mistake from his Mercedes AMG PETRONAS team-mate Lewis Hamilton gave him a free run to top spot. “In Q3, Lewis went down the escape road in front of me on his first run, so I had to back down and abort that lap”.
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After qualifying Ricciardo said he was thrilled to be alongside Rosberg for the race start.
Prior to his qualifying disaster, Hamilton had dominated the weekend, topping the timesheets in all three practice sessions.
In Hamilton’s absence, Sergio Perez qualified second, but will serve a five-place grid penalty following a gearbox change, with Red Bull’s Daniel Ricciardo third on the grid.
His quest to wipe out a nine-point deficit to championship leader Rosberg – and clinch a 46th win from 175 starts – faltered as he struggled to make up time for an earlier spin-off and took a wheel off when he clouted the barrier.
He will have to overtake and outpace four-times champion Sebastian Vettel’s improved Ferrari, third in the final shootout.
“P10 is going to be terrible as it always is around street circuits”, Hamilton said. “In Russia he finished an easy second”. The last race I didn’t feel good before the race, just didn’t have a good feeling. “Sometimes it happens”, Hamilton said. “I had a fantastic rhythm yesterday but none whatsoever today”, he said.
Hamilton has a potential problem for the race because it is unclear whether he has a set of tyres in good enough condition to start.
Perez had mixed emotions at the events of the day, describing his final flying lap as one of the best of his career and excited by the speed of the Force India on the 2.1-kilometre (1.3-mile) long main straight, but rueful at the grid penalty which his practice crash brought about. “But I’ve got to get round the first God knows how many laps to even consider that first”.
“I don’t know whether I’m permitted to say what changes they were, but it was a change that affected the vehicle today”.
“After the crash, you lose some confidence and to get it back, get back in the rhythm, it’s great”.
“I have got another opportunity tomorrow, so providing we can remain clean on track and not get caught up in other people’s mistakes, then we should be able to make good points”.
“The race I’m sure is going to be very exciting”, Rosberg told reporters. Daniil Kvyat (Toro Rosso), 7.
“For sure we’ll see some exciting racing I think, and at restarts there’s going to be a lot going on, definitely”.
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Horner said Ricciardo would get the benefit of various mechanical upgrades as the season progressed.
