Rosberg suffers ninth defeat to Hamilton in 10 pole duels in 2015; German admits tyre pressure issues don't explain large Hungary gap
Monday 27 July 2015 14:16, UK
Nico Rosberg admits he is at a loss to explain why his qualifying head-to-head with Lewis Hamilton has turned around so dramatically this year after suffering another Saturday defeat to his team-mate at the Hungaroring.
Hamilton’s ninth pole in 10 races so far this season means he leads Rosberg by a 9-1 margin in qualifying – the biggest difference between team-mates in the field – just eight months after the German became the first stable-mate in the Briton’s F1 career to outqualify him across a season.
After beating Rosberg to the world title in Abu Dhabi last November, Hamilton declared that improving his qualifying form was his main target for 2015 and, halfway through the campaign, he already has two more poles than he has achieved in any single season before. He is also on a run of 18 consecutive front-row starts.
By contrast, Rosberg vowed to work on upping his race pace over the winter. But while the German reckons that shift in focus may have taken something away from his single-lap pace, he doesn’t think it explains the whole picture.
“Part of it is I worked on my racing, to improve that, and it’s definitely been better. So I’m pleased with that,” he said on Saturday night.
“Of course, that’s slightly compromised qualifying – some of it – but most of it is not explainable for me. I don’t understand why it’s such a big difference to last year at the moment.”
In Hungary on Saturday, the final gap between the two Mercedes cars ended up at an unusually large half second in Q3 as Rosberg’s struggles with understeer from Friday returned.
While Mercedes technical chief Paddy Lowe explained that the German had experienced “a lot of problems with front tyre pressure” during qualifying, Rosberg later conceded: “It’s not something that’s a cause of my not great qualifying. Yes, those things are right, but it didn’t have a big impact on my qualifying.”
He added: “Today I went for a qualifying set-up. 100%, because that’s what you need here to win – you need to be in front in qualifying. But it didn’t work out."
However, Rosberg, who trails Hamilton by 17 points in the Drivers’ Championship, insisted his Saturday blues were not demotivating and he could still turn the tables in Sunday’s 70-lap race.
“It’s frustrating in the moment, but I’m nearly over it again. Tonight a good dinner with friends and tomorrow I’ll be firing on all pistons again and ready to attack,” he said.
“It’s not something that pulls me down in any way – it’s the way it is – and as long as my racing is good I can turn it around. I’ll try and do it tomorrow.”
