Japanese Grand Prix: Rosberg secures pole, tightens noose on Hamilton

Mercedes driver 0.013sec faster than title rival in qualifying session

SUZUKA: Nico Rosberg stormed to pole position at the Japanese Grand Prix in a pulsating climax to yesterday’s qualifying, piling yet more pressure on world title holder Lewis Hamilton.

The German, who has a 23-point lead over Hamilton in the Formula One championship with five races to go, will start alongside his British foe on the front row as the two Mercedes continued to dominate in Suzuka.

Rosberg has been quickest all weekend with Hamilton forced to play second fiddle after being cruelly robbed of victory in Malaysia by a blown engine six days ago.



The triple world champion asked questions of his fierce rival, but Rosberg showed nerves of steel to produce a blistering lap that pipped Hamilton by just 0.013 seconds in a nail-biting finish to qualifying.

Ferrari’s Kimi Raikkonen will start from third in today’s race, next to Dutch teenager Max Verstappen’s Red Bull.

“I knew I could do it. I just had to get my head down and nail it,” said Rosberg after securing his eighth pole of the year, the same number as Hamilton. “The end of qualifying was pretty intense but I had a good feeling — I knew if I put in a decent lap then it should be enough.”



Rosberg, chasing his first win in Japan and his fourth in his last five races, is hoping for a reversal of fortune at Suzuka after failing to convert pole into victory in 2014 and 2015, both times losing out to Hamilton.

Meanwhile, Sebastian Vettel was fourth fastest for Ferrari but a three-place grid penalty for a first-corner crash with Rosberg in Malaysia means he starts seventh.

Daniel Ricciardo, who inherited victory in Sepang after Hamilton’s misfortune, lines up fifth ahead of Force India’s Sergio Perez, while Vettel starts alongside Romain Grosjean’s Haas on the fourth row.

Published in The Express Tribune, October 9^th, 2016.

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