Nico Rosberg took over at the top of the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix weekend timesheet, running just over a tenth of a second quicker than team-mate Lewis Hamilton, the fastest man from the early afternoon opening session.
Advertisement
Abu Dhabi: This weekend’s Abu Dhabi Grand Prix will be special for Force India as it will mark the 150th race of the Silverstone-based team which entered Formula 1 in 2008.
The Mercedes driver suggested immediately after the Brazilian GP “there have been some changes to our vehicle which seem to have shifted the direction of the waves”, but team-mate Rosberg is adamant that there has been nothing unnatural about the tide turning in his favour since Austin.
“I’ve had two really great weekends now in Mexico and Brazil, so I’m heading into the final race on a massive high”.
“We know it’s going to be hard because I have an extremely old engine as a result of having lost my fourth engine for the year, so I have a lot of miles on it and that’s definitely costing me straightline speed”, Rosberg said.
It was on this race a year ago that the 2014 World Driver’s Championship was won.
“I would say it has been a good start to the weekend, for me”, said Rosberg.
The 30-year-old German, who is seeking his sixth straight pole position and hoping to complete a hat-trick of successive wins, was one-tenth of a second faster than the Briton as the pair scrapped for honours ahead of the last race of the season. I will make some changes though, and hopefully it will help with the graining.
Best of the rest again were Ferrari, but it was Kimi Raikkonen this time around in third place, 0.746s back on the time set by Hamilton, but 0.202s clear of the first Infiniti Red Bull Racing driver Daniil Kvyat.
“I’m also going for my 44th grand prix win”.
From filing to turn up for the post-qualifying photos when Rosberg claimed pole to demanding the team put him on a potentially more favourable strategy than his leading teammate, the cracks became increasingly evident – even his attempted defence of his second consecutive defeat sounded patchy.
Advertisement
“This has played quite a big role in the later races, and especially in Abu Dhabi which is an engine track”, he said.
