Nico Rosberg (Ger) Mercedes GP 1:46.812, 3.
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“It was nothing to do with anyone else, it was just me not doing quick laps”.
Ricciardo said Sunday’s race was unlikely to be “dull and boring”.
After a hard start to the 2016 season, often being out-raced by veteran teammate Felipe Massa, highly-rated Valtteri Bottas looks to be back to his best. “I am very, very happy”. Q3 was tough because I was heavily affected by traffic on both of my runs and I think there was definitely about half a second to be found in the vehicle. I just wasn’t feeling good. The auto was very good yesterday. “The team made a change to something overnight but I was just not on it today. I’ve just got to make my way through any tangles at the first corner and see where I go from there”.
The champion is nine points adrift of the German after seven races and hoped he might be able to regain the lead in Baku but that looks a tall order now unless misfortune strikes Rosberg. Tonight I need to try and clear my mind, put that frustration behind me, and focus on moving forward in the race.
“Finishing the race is important and not allowing Nico to pull too far away”.
“If I don’t get caught up in other people’s mistakes, good points are still possible”.
That caused the session to be red-flagged, and eventually left Hamilton down in 10th on the grid, without having set a proper time in Q3.
“I’m out of the session”, said a dejected Hamilton over the team radio in what he is likely to regard as one of the worst qualifying sessions in his 10-season career.
If there is a safety issue they can be changed at the FIA’s discretion, which would nearly certainly be granted.
“I’m a still a bit angry from the mistake of this morning”, Perez said.
Rosberg opted to end his session early, satisfied with his time while the rest of the field went out for one final lap.
Rosberg said that F1’s newest track offered “one of the more challenging sessions out there”. But it worked out great. It’s definitely a good track for overtaking and there will be Safety Car moments for sure as we have seen in GP2, so I must be prepared for that.
The Spaniard was 14th, complaining about traffic after his final lap but 0.6secs off making into the top 10 – no great surprise in a vehicle with the least powerful engine in F1 on the track with the longest straight.
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“On the one side, I’m excited for my team colleagues because they want to have a one-two and it’s still possible tomorrow, but it’s going to be more hard now for sure”.
