Nico Rosberg ended second practice for Sunday’s season-ending Abu Dhabi Grand Prix on top of the timesheets after edging out Lewis Hamilton.
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The German reeled off a flawless flying lap at the fag end of the qualifying session to upstage his British teammate Lewis Hamilton at the Yas Marina Circuit on Saturday.
The German who was fastest all through this weekend finished with the best timing of 1:40:237 as the Mercedes duo, who will also be chasing a record 12th one-two of the season in the final race of the season, stayed comfortably ahead of the rest.
“It has been since Singapore, I knew we made a change but I didn’t think it would make a huge difference, but from Suzuka afterwards the auto was already trickier from then on”, he said. “It’s just to-and-fro a little bit, and at the moment I am the one that has the upper hand”. “It’s going to be a hard weekend as a result, but I’ll just have to be quicker in the corners”.
The Finn admitted 2015 had been “better than previous year but a long way from what it should be”, for the Italian team, who are expected to get even closer to Mercedes in 2016.
Sergio Perez took a surprise third place for Force India, though he best lap was six tenths down on Rosberg’s P1 time.
Rosberg said on Friday that he would be handicapped this weekend by an engine that is higher on mileage than Hamilton’s.
“If we changed something, it is to make both cars faster”, Lauda explained, “and both drivers have to cope with it. Today is not the real picture”.
And the build-up to Hamilton’s last outing in Brazil was overshadowed by his auto crash in Monaco where he lost control of his £1.5million Pagani Zonda supercar and hit a stationary vehicle.
That’s something we’ll find out between now and next spring as the teams retreat to their hideaways for the winter, after tomorrow’s 2015 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix at Yas Marina rounds off the 2015 F1 season.
The day-into-night Grand Prix of Abu Dhabi starts at the traditional 8:00 AM Eastern time, and will air on the NBC Sports Network in the US.
Ferrari’s Kimi Raikkonen was third as team-mate Sebastian Vettel failed to progress from Q1. Max Verstappen, Pastor Maldonado, Felipe Nasr and Romain Grosjean, driving his final race for Lotus, all joined Button in failing to advance.
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“It is a small mistake with a big outcome”.
