Mercedes, meanwhile, left relieved Bottas didn't beat them to pole
Friday 17 October 2014 17:45, UK
Nico Rosberg has admitted he had no answer to the pace of Lewis Hamilton after the World Championship leader clinched pole position by two-tenths of a second in Sochi.
For the third time in four races, Hamilton will start on pole for Sunday’s inaugural Russian GP after topping every session in qualifying.
"Lewis was quicker, all weekend really, I've been working hard to get closer but couldn't get within those two-tenths now,” the German admitted with disarming honesty afterwards.
“That's just the way it is. But the front-row is okay and from there everything is possible."
Or, at least everything is possible on the run to the first corner, as in the words of Rosberg himself to Sky Sports News HQ: "Into Turn One is a great opportunity, after that...more difficult."
The brand-new Sochi Autodrom, a semi-permanent circuit which winds round the city’s Winter Olympic Park, has been likened in both look and style to the little-loved Valencia street track which hosted the European GP between 2008 and 2012.
The Spanish venue proved notoriously difficult to overtake on, and generally short on action, but Hamilton, while aiming to lead from the front on Sunday, thinks the Russian track should be better.
“I don’t know for sure [about overtaking], but I personally wasn’t a big fan of the Valencia circuit. I like the race track they have which is outside of the city, but the actual street one wasn’t very exciting,” the Briton said.
“This one is definitely better. Whether or not we can follow, who knows? They are medium to fast sweeping corners where you need maximum downforce so tomorrow will be a true showing of whether or not you can follow.”
Given he starts on pole, Hamilton will hope the answer is 'not too closely'. Since the disaster of Spa in August, when his tyre was punctured by an overly-aggressive Rosberg, Hamilton has, in the words of Sky F1 analyst Martin Brundle, “found an extra gear”, to turn the World Championship battle around.
"Pole position is a great place to start, it was an amazing job from the team to keep on improving. It's a beautiful place, I'm really enjoying driving this track. It's been done really nicely,” said Hamilton.
"It wasn't easy this session and trying to hook up a good lap. It wasn’t a perfect [pole] lap, I feel there was more time in it. But it’s a fine line obviously, we are all pushing out there. It didn’t feel as good as the P3 session but hopefully tomorrow should be good."
Hamilton’s pole position lap of 1:38.513 was significantly slower than the 1:38.338 he produced to lead the field in Q2 as track conditions deteriorated and Mercedes unexpectedly found themselves under threat from the Williams of Valtteri Bottas. But for a last-corner excursion on to a strip of run-off, both Hamilton and Rosberg could have been usurped by the Finn as Williams suddenly turned up with a vengeance.
"That was close, we were lucky with Bottas making a mistake in the final sector,” acknowledged a relieved Toto Wolff.
With the bullet nonetheless dodged, Mercedes’ ninth front-row lockout of their dominant season puts them in the perfect place from which to wrap up the 2014 Constructors’ Championship on Sunday.
Irrespective of where Mercedes’ cars finish, title holders Red Bull need to outscore their Brackley rivals by 19 points in the race to mathematically take the fight on to Austin, something which looks distinctly unlikely given they struggled for pace in qualifying and will line up sixth and tenth on the grid.
“It’s one of the two big targets for the team since five years now,” said Rosberg, who joined the team following Mercedes’ takeover of Brawn in 2010.
“I’ve been there since day one and it’s very, very exciting to think we’re so close to that now. That would be a really fantastic feat for us and I hope we manage to do it tomorrow.”
