Sao Paulo: Newly-crowned triple world champion Lewis Hamilton shrugged off his apparent drop in qualifying form as nothing to worry about on Saturday after his Mercedes team-mate Nico Rosberg outpaced him to pole for the fifth race in a row.
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After his fifth consecutive pole position start in 2015, Nico Rosberg wins Formula 1’s Grande Premio Petrobras do Brasil.
When the pressure was seriously on, two races ago at the US Grand Prix, Hamilton hunted down Rosberg in the closing laps to such an extent that the German was railroaded into an unforced error allowing the Brit to roar through and claim the title.
It was the 21st pole of his career, the most by any driver not to have won the world title, and yet another front row lockout for the Mercedes team. “It’s just things have come together better now and it’s an ongoing development”, said Rosberg, who secured second place in the championship.
Lewis Hamilton failed to win in Brazil on his ninth attempt, a race the 2015 champion so desperately wanted to win due to the connections with his hero Ayrton Senna.
Ferrari’s Sebastian Vettel finished third and teammate Kimi Raikkonen was fourth, exactly the way the top four racers started on the grid. Of course from race to race, from track to track the gap can vary a bit, but overall I think things are heading in the right direction.
“A sensational lap from Lewis and an unbelievably enormous lap from Nico at the very end, similar to his performance in Mexico”. “It is a great track, but you just can’t get close enough to overtake”.
From the qualifying up to the actual race of the Formula One Brazilian Grand Prix, Nico Rosberg appeared to be at his best.
“It wouldn’t be fair for the guy running second to go for another strategy and for it to turn out it was massively the better strategy, and you won the race just because of luck and the other strategy being so much quicker”, he said. “He’s not going to pass me with that pace”. You know, to say ‘Hey, do you want to do this or do you want to do that?’ and see how it plays out.
Unsurprisingly, Rosberg did not agree with Hamilton. Rosberg is trying to nail down second place.
Although the race was conducted in the usual keenly competitive spirit, there was a nod to the victims of Friday’s terror attacks in Paris.
Meanwhile, another painful weekend for McLaren culminated in Jenson Button and Fernando Alonso finishing 15th and 16th respectively.
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Wolff argued Mercedes had not banned strategy divergence outright but would not let its drivers make poor choices. Felipe Massa (BRZ) Williams +1 lap 9 Romain Grosjean (FRA) Lotus +1 lap 10 Max Verstappen (NED) Toro Rosso +1 lap 11 Pastor Maldonado (VEN) Lotus +1 lap 12 Daniel Ricciardo (AUS) Red Bull +1 lap 13 Sergio Perez (MEX) Force India +1 lap 14.
