Saturday: Mercedes drivers optimistic for the race
Lewis Hamilton will start just behind the two Red Bulls on the clean side of the track, and he hopes to take advantage of this to pose some problems for Vettel and Webber. Nico Rosberg, for his part, will start 6th, but he has focused more on his race setup. He hopes this will play in his favor tomorrow.
Lewis Hamilton – 2nd and 3rd:
« I am really happy with this 3rd place on the grid and the team did a great job this weekend, so thanks to everyone for their hard work. It seems to me that we have a better package here than we have had for a while and the car feels amazing to drive. The wind direction changed compared to yesterday’s practice and that changed the characteristics of the track, which seemed to have more grip. 3rd place is a good result in qualifying since the Red Bulls were out of reach today. Managing tire degradation will be key tomorrow so hopefully we can get a good start from the clean side of the track, then we’ll see what we can do against the guys in front. »
Nico Rosberg – 3rd and 6th:
« It was a good lap but it’s frustrating when you get out of the car and the gap with the people ahead of you is so tight. I have set up my car more for tomorrow afternoon, so I am confident it should be a challenging race for the tires. 6th is not too bad a position to start and I’ll try to gain a few places in the hierarchy. Qualifying always involves compromises in terms of setup but we saw in Korea that it worked well for me in the race until my wing broke. I hope we’ve found the same balance between qualifying and race performance this weekend. »
