Nico Rosberg and Lewis Hamilton meet at the first corner
If Nico Rosberg secured the pole position, he knows he will be under threat from his teammate, Lewis Hamilton, at the first corner. After the incidents in Suzuka and Austin, both drivers will be eager to get the better of their teammate.
Nico Rosberg has only managed to convert two of his last ten pole positions into victories. In order to boost himself mentally for the next season, he knows he must improve in this area. But above all, he wanted to savor his return to form during qualifying after being dominated by Lewis Hamilton at the beginning of the season: « I am quite satisfied with my first half of the weekend. I must thank my engineers because we found the right settings, and I felt very good in the car. I had a good lap in Q3, which I was not able to improve during the second run. »
But he knows there’s still a long way to go and that he’ll have to face intense competition, even if he doesn’t even mention his teammate: « Tomorrow is what matters and it will be a big battle for victory with the top five. Sebastian and the two Red Bulls look strong but I’m very confident that our car is the best prepared. »
However, the new triple world champion is not discouraged by his relative failure of the day and takes the opportunity to put pressure on his teammate: « For some races, pole really makes the difference. But here I’m not too worried about being second because there’s a lot of distance to the first corner and I plan to make a good start tomorrow. »
Toto Wolff, the team director, does not shy away from the topic and even looks forward to it: “It’s surely going to be fun to see the guys get to the first corner… and see how they will handle it.”
The stage is set. All that remains is to see how this new act will unfold…
