“It seems really odd to me, having witnessed Red Bull’s success”, he said.
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Following various disruptions in each practice session ahead of qualifying, there was no obvious front runner to anticipate as the session got underway, though it soon become clear in Q1 and Q2 that Mercedes would once again prove the dominant force.
Rosberg set an unbeatable time of 1 minute, 37.113 seconds midway through the final qualifying session in Sochi, more than three tenths of a second faster than Hamilton.
“That wasn’t a very useful day.” said Nico Rosberg after the session.
A year ago Valtteri Bottas had pushed Hamilton, who took pole in 2014, to the very limit, quickest over the first two sectors of the final lap but losing time at the end.
If Bottas could put up another stellar lap performance we might see the Williams driver high up in the starting grid, potentially giving him the upper hand in the race.
Force India’s Nico Hulkenberg and Sergio Perez were sixth and seventh, with Romain Grosjean eighth for Lotus and Toro Rosso’s Max Verstappen ninth. It stated that his medical scan found no injuries but the Toro Rosso driver will be staying overnight at the hospital as a precautionary measure. His manager announced that Sainz was doing “perfectly”. His first impact with the wall had scraped the paint from the hoarding. The vehicle went through impact-absorbing barriers and buckled the metal barrier behind.
The team principal Franz Tost confirmed Sainz’s condition.
Hamilton’s 48-point lead over Rosberg means the British driver could still secure a third championship title even if Rosberg wins all five of the remaining races this season.
An update on Sainz was also released in this session. But he also knew my name, which is nice. He switched off the engine and everything, he did all the procedures as he normally does when he stops the vehicle.
“Today we had to just sit and wait, and hope that the rain stopped. That’s why our auto is so bloody good because he is amongst that group who have that freedom”. But if the result is the same I won’t mind. “I have to say he is the best. But we must find out why and what happened”, he said. But in Sochi he confirmed he found the set-up with his new team more to his liking and one into which he has grown comfortable. Given the scale of the incident, this appears to be unlikely.
Sainz, who is contesting his debut season in the sport, was airlifted to a nearby hospital in Sochi after the crash on Saturday morning. Jenson Button in contrast, with contract freshly signed, celebrated with a decent 13th in the recalcitrant McLaren, well ahead of team-mate Fernando Alonso.
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That said, he felt Mercedes – whose Brackley factory was previously owned by BAR, Honda and Brawn – offered more freedom than he ever had at McLaren’s award-winning Woking headquarters.
