Rosberg Takes Pole In Brazil

INTERLAGOS, Brazil- Realizing that he must pick up more points if he wants to beat Lewis Hamilton for the Formula One Driver’s Championship. Nico Rosberg snatched a last second fastest lap of 1:10:023 from the Briton to take pole position for Sunday’s Brazilian Grand Prix. Home crowd favorite Felipe Massa will start in third.

Rosberg had taken every session this weekend, but afterwards was very cautious about what the press thought was a perfect job.

“Perfect job, if it weren’t for tomorrow’. Said Rosberg. “But up to now, everything is going well. It is a nice place to be in tomorrow, but I am hoping that things will go well in the race, unlike Austin for example.”

Rosberg had been quickest all Friday and up to Saturday qualifying, it just kept going as the German had no trouble taking the opening two sessions and continued right up to the final round, setting fastest times of 1:10:347 and 1:10:303, respectively. The Lotus pair of Pastor Maldonado and Romain Grosjean were disappointing in the opening round as both failed to advance to the second phase, with the latter starting in 16th and the Colombian 17th. Only the grid penalties imposed by Dani Kvyat and Sergio Perez kept the Enstone duo from starting Sunday’s race on the back of the grid.

Both outgoing Sauber drivers Esteban Gutierrez and Adrian Sutil improved for the first time this season, with the Mexican qualifying in 11th spot and Sutil in 13th. Another driver, Nico Hulkenberg, who won pole a few years ago here when he was with Williams, will be in between the Sauber duo, qualifying in 12th.

Valterri Bottas led the rest of the grid qualifying in fourth, while Jenson Button had one of his best qualifying session of the year by placing fifth. Sebastian Vettel was sixth, Kevin Magnussen finished seventh, while Fernando Alonso took eighth. Daniel Ricciardo and Kimi Raikkonen round out the top ten.

Although Rosberg is 24 points behind his teammate, the German feels that he has nothing to lose.

“It is a lot of pressure.” He added. “It is pretty much similar, what is driving us there, the tension, the excitement. It has not been changing that much, and I am here, just going for it. I am just staying here, coping with the overtime. I am optimistic was well, I learned from Austin (Texas), and I know what I need to do better, so I am good to go for tomorrow.”

Mark Gero

Mark Gero has written formula one racing stories since 2002 on the Internet for such sites as Motorsport.com, Racing Information Service News and for a brief time at the Munich Eye newspaper in Munich, Germany along with Autoweek online. Mark also has a diploma in journalism from the London School of Journalism in London, England and in addition a Bachelor’s degree in Journalism and Mass Communication from Ashford University in Clinton, Iowa.

racingnation.com