Rosberg claims pole position trophy with tenth Saturday success of the season; Hamilton second and determined to continue winning run
Tuesday 25 November 2014 17:50, UK
Brazilian GP polesitter Nico Rosberg has vowed to learn from his defeat in Austin a week ago and convert his unbeatable Saturday pace into a race victory at Interlagos.
Rosberg’s pole position for Sunday's Brazilian GP, secured from Lewis Hamilton by less than a tenth of a second, was his tenth of 2014. It also guaranteed that the World Championship outsider will win at least one trophy this year following the FIA’s decision to introduce an award for the most poles during a season.
The German has been in peerless form this weekend, topping the timesheets in every session and appearing to be totally at ease in the field-beating W05. But he also looked a class apart in qualifying in America a week ago, out-pacing Hamilton by almost half a second at the Circuit of Americas, only to be comprehensively thrashed by his team-mate in race conditions a day later.
A Rosberg victory is certainly overdue; the last of his four wins this year is already four months old.
“It is the perfect job only if it works out tomorrow unfortunately. Up to now it has been going well and I am in the best place to be in tomorrow, but of course I need to make it happen in the race, unlike Austin,” Rosberg acknowledged.
“I know what l need to improve, I didn’t find my rhythm in Austin. Anyway, it’s a different situation here with a different track and we’ve done a lot of long runs. We've practiced a lot more for the race this weekend, including this morning in Practice Three, and I was feeling comfortable."
Two second places in the remaining races will be sufficient for Hamilton to claim the championship from Rosberg, but the Englishman, who has won the last five events in resplendent fashion, is adamant he will maintain a winning mentality for Sunday’s race.
“The target is to win the race and hopefully we’ll have a good battle tomorrow,” said Hamilton. "If I have a shot into Turn One I'm going to take it.
"Of course I want to win, but it's harder here to overtake. I'm taking a lot of positives from today, particularly with the car and its balance, and I'll be pushing hard tomorrow."
Relations between the Mercedes team-mates have sufficiently thawed in recent weeks for the pair to embrace warmly after the session, although it remains to be seen whether such goodwill be carried over into race conditions.
“I’m sure the start will be great to watch, but starting on the clean side, and with such a short run to Turn One, that should definitely be helpful,” noted Rosberg. "But it's going to be a challenging race because the degradation on the tyres will be massive.
"My confidence is good, and I need to put a dent in Lewis' confidence and keep him behind. I'm out to win."
With double points on offer in the season finale in Abu Dhabi in two weeks' time, the season-long title battle between Rosberg and Hamilton is guaranteed to go down to the wire. Were the German to win this weekend’s grand prix and Hamilton fail to finish in the top ten, Rosberg would claim a one-point advantage going into the final race, while Hamilton could extend his current 24-point lead to 49 on Sunday – one short of the margin required to secure his second world title. Game on in every respect.
