I was trying to figure out what Rosberg was doing myself... Still don't understand it. He is lucky it was his team mate who he was blocking or else he might have been in a bit of trouble.
Hamilton should be Rosberg's only competition but his behaviour is self-defeating and now he's bringing Vettel into the contest.
His strengths last year was qualifying now Hamilton has out qualified him twice in two weekends...you could see in his face at the question session.... He already looks beaten. Vettel will try to prove a point to him tomorrow so that should be interesting. Hope Rosberg doesn't do something stupid
This is Vettels best chance of a win, Hamilton missed out so much long run practice and Rosberg is mildly insane.
*looking smug being the only guy who picked Vettel* Now this race should be interesting, sure Lewis will shoot off and make a big gap with Rosberg losing his marbles behind Vettel for a few laps. But after about 7-8 laps and the prime stint we might see Vettel claw them back and give them some trouble maybe. Ferrari race pace was great, Mercedes less so and they might have to do another pit stop... The mercedes also has a few signs of unreliability in the air. But I agree this is Vettel's best chance for a win in a while both Ferrari and Vettel need to be A+ to beat Mercedes.
Rosberg should be faster than Hamilton tomorrow since he has had a smoother weekend and more time to work on his race setup. One thing that amused me in qualifying though was when he asked for advice for finding the best line and then there's a 17 year old rookie telling Sky how to adapt to wet conditions.
Hindsight's a wonderful thing but I'm not sure he ever had it, mentally. He can put a quick lap together and take pole but his racecraft is weak. Last year, when he won it was by profiting from Lewis's misfortunes, not by being the better driver; he also resorted to dirty tricks to obtain an advantage. It looks to me now that these factors may have disguised a mental weakness that was always there; I won't dispute that this is becoming ever more apparent though.
On a lighter note..the funny things drivers say...we had Rosberg telling about the napkins he uses on his forehead and now Kimi complaining to his team "this guy was trying to get inside of me". I was wondering for a minute there
You realise that after 5 races last year Hamilton out qualified Rosberg 4-1? And traditionally, Rosberg is poor at the start of the season, whereas it's Hamilton's strength. If it was a dry qualifying, I think Rosberg had the slight edge, it just happens he's terrible in the rain. There's way too much arse licking in this thread, yet again, and you wonder why no new people ever join the forums?
Well as it turned out my prediction was slightly ruined by Kimi being on the end of a little bad luck again with Ericsson, and is now seriously hampered in 11th. He looked the stronger Ferrari on the long runs and the fact that Vettel is where he is on the grid kinda suggests it would have indeed been on with Kimi and Seb, especially as Rosberg now needs to pass one of them. Vettel still has a chance but gut feeling watching the cars is that he is set up slightly more for one lap pace than Kimi so will probably have to 3 stop like the Mercedes, Kimi was looking like a borderline 2 stop.
People to watch: Vettel and Lewis at the start. Kimi, Maldonado and Grosjean into turn 1. Sainz, Nasr, Kimi to make places.
