Feel so proud for Button and Vettel a great mental boost for both. Hamilton takes another mental blow. Think he decided it though, got too cocky. Also Saints if you appear on the thread at any other point in the calender you would notice I do praise Hamilton. Other users know that. I did in yesterdays practice infact. I actually thought he would smash Quali. You are probably one of the douches crying team orders on Twitter. You bore the f**k off.
Guess Rosberg is hungrier Horner admitted it himself, they made a bad call on keeping Dan in. Frustrating.
What a manic qualifying. I was in shock when Hulk went fastest and was trying to think of where he could have cut a corner! Delighted for Jenson. Nigh on impossible to hold the podium tomorrow, but i think he needed this boost today. Hamilton i guess was already celebrating early.
Hi all. Just a quickie. Fascinating F1 qualifying with notoriously unpredictable weather on our amazing circuit. Congratulations to JB for getting to the interview stage. What a shame his father's not here to share the moment. Hamilton may be the quickest driver on the planet but he underestimated track, weather – and most tellingly, he underestimated his opponents. Once again, Rosberg scores massive mind-games points; and at this level in today's techno F1, they are probably more important than absolute outright speed. Competitors in any sport know that the most important thing to work on is one's biggest weakness. Time will tell but it appears to be taking Hamilton too long to get his head straight…
How is it luck if you abort a lap because you're too cocky to think anyone will go quicker. He messed it up by himself, and the interview with Rosberg proves how much cleverer he is, knowing that S3 was wet on his original lap when Hamilton didn't even think of that.
As a huge Hamilton fan, it's hats off to Nico today. Made the right call, and despite (in my opinion) not having the outright pace to compete with Lewis, he's proving again that he can win the all-important mental battle. Will make for a fascinating race tomorrow, especially if LH can replicate his blistering start from the last race.
I agree with Fred (above). This one wasn't luck. Hamilton was holding all the aces (including track position) and just threw his whole hand away. Massive error. Not luck. Not this time.
It's unravelling big time for Hamilton now and I get the feeling he's lost the support of the team in recent races too. I can't see him beating Rosberg tomorrow (if it's dry; if it's wet anything can happen) and he's going to have to drive a good race just to limit the damage to seven points. This is the first time I've really felt Rosberg is favourite for the title. Assuming he extends his lead to 36 points tomorrow it's going to really take the pressure off him knowing that second places will keep him ahead for at least five races. Hamilton's going to have to win pretty much every race if Rosberg doesn't have a failure.
If he does win then it means that Hamilton will have to win 6 more races than Rosberg to win the championship if they keep finishing 1-2. Let's say Rosberg then wins in Abu Dhabi, that's a net 50 points he's got with a further 9 races to go. If Rosberg then wins one more race he's won the championship. If Hamilton wins Abu Dhabi then it's a net 22 points, which will mean he needs 4 extra victories so he'll still have to win 7-2. That one point he has over the multiple of 7 in the championship is huge, and is probably the most important point of his career. If Rosberg wins tomorrow he's easily the favourite, having only needing to win two races in the last half of the season. Edit: This means if Rosberg wins Hamilton will have to come 2nd 3rd or 4th because if he's between 5th and 8th then Rosberg only needs to win in Abu Dhabi and if he's 9th or lower then Rosberg only needs to win one more race regardless.
As a kid playing football one thing was hammered into us, play to the whistle. Hamilton has been caught out by his own arrogance, again. I guess that's what happpens when you brag about how much faster you were than your team-mate the year before in the first sentence of a pre-race interview, you're pretty much asking for it. Not over half a second faster this time was he. And I wonder how hard Button will hold him off when he inevitably has him behind. I'm going for a rush of blood early exit for Hamilton.
One engine failure for Nico and its game on. It is very, very dangerous to write off someone with the natural speed edge. Nico is excellent, but remember without two enforced retirements there is huge point swing. Things can change in one weekend in F1 Would be phenomenal if Jenson could grab a podium but chances are very tricky given his woeful record off the line and the fact the McLaren is having trouble in high speed corners. At least his engine gives him a chance of fighting off Red Bull. Force India in very handy positions for a podium though given their superb tyre management.
