Sao Paulo: Nico Rosberg was reluctant to celebrate his success on Saturday when he drove with flawless precision to outpace Mercedes teammate Lewis Hamilton and claim pole position for Sunday’s Brazilian Grand Prix.
Instead, as he reflected on his 10th pole of the season and 14th of his career, he pointed out that even if he had won a prize — the Pole Position Trophy as best qualifier of the year — he had not won any points.
Those, he said, are only won on Sunday when he aims to win the 71-lap race and keep alive his hopes of winning this year’s drivers’ world championship.
Rosberg may also have been mindful of his record this year that showed he had only converted two of his previous nine pole positions into victory, while Hamilton had turned six of his seven poles into a win.
The 29-year-old German currently trails Hamilton by 24 points with two races remaining, including the season-ending Abu Dhabi Grand Prix where double points are scored.
“It’s the perfect job only if it works out tomorrow,” said Rosberg. “Up to now, it has been going well. I’m in the best place to be for tomorrow, but I need to make it happen in the race.”
“The pressure, it’s similar,” he added. “The adrenaline is there, the tension, the excitement. It’s not been changing that much, I’m just here, I’m going for it, pushing myself to stay optimistic all the time.
“I have learned from Austin [where he started on pole last weekend but was beaten on race day by Hamilton], I know what I need to do better so from that point of view, I look forward to tomorrow.”
Hamilton, winner of the last five races, was full of praise for his team-mate and the way in which the session unfolded.
“It was great fun out there,” said Hamilton. “Nico did a great lap. I think I lost time at Turn 10 and maybe a tiny bit in Turn One, but it was great having to keep going out and fighting — that’s what qualifying should be all about, and being that close is really exciting — I hope everyone enjoyed it.
“It’s a long race tomorrow and it should be really exciting with all the pit stops. I want to win as much as anyone else.”
Massa thrills locals
Rosberg secured pole by the narrowest of margins when in a tense session, both men broke the Interlagos lap record several times as Rosberg finally topped the times with a best lap in one minute and 10.023 seconds.
This was just 0.033 seconds faster than Hamilton’s best lap and enabled him to complete a clean sweep, having topped the times in all three practice sessions.
The previous best qualifying lap at Interlagos was set by Brazilian Rubens Barrichello who clocked 1:10.646 in 2004 for Ferrari.
The Mercedes pair’s seventh successive front row lockout enabled the team to equal the Williams team’s 1993 record of 28 front row starts from Damon Hill and Alain Prost.
“I have been preparing for the race, extra starts and more work in practice with runs on full fuel,” said Rosberg.
“So I am confident I have done all I can. I am confident. Now I just want to put a dent into Lewis’s confidence tomorrow.”
Brazilian Felipe Massa was third fastest for Williams and greeted by a standing ovation from the fanatical Interlagos crowd. His Williams team-mate Valtteri Bottas was fourth quickest.
“It’s very emotional to be here in Brazil and have a competitive car and start in the top three,” said Massa.
“I didn’t use everything I could from the car. I got a lot of traffic in my last run. There were also problems in the garage and I couldn’t improve my lap time.”
Jenson Button, without a confirmed drive or seat in Formula One next year, proved his enduring talent by qualifying fifth for McLaren ahead of four-time world champion Sebastian Vettel of Red Bull.
Kimi Raikkonen qualified seventh for Ferrari ahead of Australian Daniel Ricciardo in the second Red Bull, Kevin Magnussen of McLaren and 10th placed Fernando Alonso in the second Ferrari.
