The Mercedes driver will start from the last row or the pit lane after being hit with a 55-place grid penalty for exceeding his permitted allocation of engine-related components with three power-unit changes this weekend.
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“We are not easily the quickest here and with the temperatures it is probably the worst time to take the penalties”. The Brit did complete a lap time in qualifying but was last of the runners knowing he’ll be at the back of the field on Sunday.
“It’s been a vacation weekend”, joked Hamilton who has focused his attention this weekend on race pace rather than flat-out qualifying blasts.
He’ll be back to the serious business on Sunday.
“Hoping to get into the top 10”, said Hamilton, all but ruling out a 50th career win.
“It’s completely different to China”.
“It’s supposed to be cooler tomorrow”, said Vettel.
Rosberg ended up just 0.149s clear of Max Verstappen, with Raikkonen only 0.017s further back.
“We had a hard weekend up to now, especially this morning; we were seriously off the pace on one lap”, explained the championship hopeful.
But with 20,000 Dutch fans here, the 18-year-old driver will be especially keen to get out on track. “It’s such a great motivation”.
“To be so close to Nico on a track with long straights – we can be very pleased with that”.
After becoming the youngest victor of an F1 race with a brilliant victory in Spain this season, Verstappen is the youngest driver to qualify on the front row of the grid.
“But if you compare it to my Q2 lap, I lost two tenths in the final chicane – so pole was there”.
The previous youngest was Mexican Ricardo Rodriguez, who qualified second for Ferrari at the 1961 Italian GP, aged 19.
Verstappen starts on the supersoft tyre, whilst Rosberg, as well as the two Ferraris behind and team mate Daniel Ricciardo, will start on the yellow-marked soft tyre.
“For me the soft is a little bit the safer option – the super-soft is not going to last much more than a handful of laps”.
“I couldn’t take them at Monza because I might not be able to make it through the race on my other engine and I only had one engine that was alive really, so I could have entered the race tomorrow but I wouldn’t have been able to push the engine and there was a risk that it wouldn’t have made it”.
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No world champions on the front of the grid, five combined world titles on the back.
