Hamilton Razzles Rosberg Dazzles Mercedes Qualify 1-2 in Spain
Nico Rosberg and Lewis Hamilton locked out the front row for Mercedes-Benz at Saturday’s qualifying for the Spanish Grand Prix.
In Q2 Hamilton looked to be in serious trouble, well in the relegation zone when he started his final timed lap. When he crossed the finish line, the Brit had driven his car to first place and qualifying results began to look a little less fuzzy.
Q3 became the Nico Rosberg show.
On his initial lap Rosberg lapped the Catalunya circuit in 1.20.8—a time that would have been good for pole position. Just to be sure Rosberg lapped once more to a time of 1.20.718 and followed up his Bahrain pole position in the best possible way.
Hamilton completed only one lap in Q3 but it was fast enough to give Mercedes-Benz a 1-2 for Sunday’s race. Mercedes-Benz Chairman Dieter Zetsche looked elated in the pit lane. 3 pole positions running makes the boss happy to pay the bills.
Reb Bull’s Sebastian Vettel was third fastest. Mark Webber qualified 8th but complained of being blocked by Massa in the third sector on one of his timed laps. The stewards agreed and accessed a penalty to Massa.
Saturday for Scuderia Ferrari was a dismal. Along with Massa’s three place grid penalty, Alonso voiced his frustrations about his F138. With company president Luca Di Montezemolo trackside for the session, Alonso bemoaned the team being all show and no go when it came to bringing updates to his car.
Jenson Button’s rough season at McLaren continued as the Brit couldn’t haul his car out of Q2. Radio transmissions between he and the team sounded like a man who had given up. His Teammate, Sergio Perez, managed to qualify 9th, adding insult to Button’s injurious Saturday.
What to watch for:
Do Rosberg and Hamilton have the race pace to keep Vettel and Red Bull behind? That wasn’t the case last round in Bahrain and the two were very vocal about that possibly in the press conference.
Raikkonen starts 4th but his Lotus is easy on the Pirelli tires. Is a two stopper in the cards? Same for Grosjean who starts 6th.
Yesterday I said that qualifying was important in Spain. Last season two DRS zones didn’t help the cause for passing. With the Pirelli tire degradation being what it is this season the two zones may play a greater role than they have in years past.
As always come back to 6speed tomorrow for a race recap and analysis!
The video will disappear soon. I’ll try to keep it up to date but in the meantime, get it while the getting is good.