Rosberg, runner-up to Hamilton in the past two seasons, won the opening four races of the campaign as Hamilton struggled with mechanical problems.
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After starting 21st thanks to a grid penalty, Hamilton made the most of the frenetic early stages to rise up to third place after his first scheduled pit stop, bringing himself into the mix for a stunning victory. Verstappen preferred the supersoft, which most drivers concur won’t last long if the weekend’s hot temperatures continue, and was the anomaly amongst the leading runners.
The race went under the safety auto on lap six after a huge crash for Kevin Magnussen at the top of Raidillion after losing the back-end of the vehicle.
The Dane was able to walk away from the accident but was heavily limping. I decided with the team to run the super-softs [in Q2].
So Rosberg held on to the pole, while local hero Verstappen lined up second.
“To be on the front row here, only a tenth and a half or so behind Mercedes – that’s pretty impressive”. His team mate Sergio Perez, fourth in the morning, ended the day fifth. With another set of mediums fitted, Hamilton questioned the decision taken by Mercedes, but soon found his feet to latch onto the back of Hulkenberg ahead.
At the front, Rosberg looked comfortable.
Red Bull TAG Heuer – Daniel Ricciardo and Max Verstappen.
The Briton leads Rosberg by 19 points in the standings and heads into Sunday’s race aiming to become only the third driver ever to get 50 career wins. We lost quite a bit of time on the straight and, in the second sector, I thought I was doing quite well compared to my delta, my lap time from the lap before.
Often hiding pace on a Friday, the Williams pair of Valtteri Bottas and Felipe Massa were 16th and 17th respectively, with Bottas needing an ECU change which limited his running in the middle of the session.
Elsewhere, Jenson Button was eighth for McLaren while his team-mate Fernando Alonso, who will join Hamilton on the back row after being hit with a 35-place penalty for using more engine parts than permitted, was 12th fastest. The Dutch teenager then repeated the same move on Vettel, forcing the German wide and across the slip road.
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Another driver suffering from reliability issues was Jolyon Palmer, who stopped at Turn 9 after suffering a loss of power. Haas Ferrari – Romain Grosjean and Esteban Gutierrez.
