A week on following the championship battle at Austin, Nico Rosberg strikes back with a strong performance in the Mexican Grand Prix to claim pole.
The Mercedes driver achieved his fourth successive pole, beating the new champion Lewis Hamilton by 0.188 seconds.
Ferrari’s Sebastian Vettel was 0.370 seconds adrift of Rosberg in third, claiming over team radio he “tried everything” to take the fight to the Silver Arrows.
Red Bull lost pace to its rivals in qualifying compared to practice, both cars ending up nearly a second adrift of the top spot.
Daniil Kvyat beat team-mate Daniel Ricciardo by just a tiny margin of one thousandth of a second as the RB11s placed fourth and fifth on the timesheet.
Valtteri Bottas rounded out the top six, just ahead of Williams team-mate Felipe Massa and the Toro Rosso of Max Verstappen.
Mexican hero Sergio Perez out-qualified team-mate Nico Hulkenberg by less than a tenth of a second as the Force Indias completed the top ten.
Late improvements by Verstappen and Massa in Q2 meant Carlos Sainz Jr missed out on making the pole position shootout by just 0.007 seconds in the other Toro Rosso.
Romain Grosjean was P12, 0.223 seconds faster than Lotus team-mate Pastor Maldonado and just over a tenth away from making Q3 himself.
Marcus Ericsson couldn’t replicate the pace that put his Sauber tenth quickest in Q1, so he wound up P14 overall, ahead of the Ferrari of Kimi Raikkonen.
The Iceman complained of a problem with his brake pedal in Q1, where he ended up outside the top ten in the times.
He then stopped midway through Q2 after spinning at Turn 1.
The 2007 world champion will incur a five-place grid penalty for a gearbox change following the breakdown he suffered with his SF15-T in final practice.
Fellow world champion Fernando Alonso squeaked ahead of the Sauber of Felipe Nasr by 0.009 seconds with his final flying lap.
Unfortunately the McLaren failed to escape Q1, along with the Manor Marussias and his team-mate Jenson Button, which failed to take part in session following engine problems in final practice.
Both McLaren-Hondas will start at the back on account of incurring grid penalties for multiple engine changes earlier in the Mexican Grand Prix weekend.
Qualifying positions, Mexican Grand Prix:
1 Nico Rosberg Mercedes 1m19.480s
2 Lewis Hamilton Mercedes 1m19.668s
3 Sebastian Vettel Ferrari 1m19.850s
4 Daniil Kvyat Red Bull-Renault 1m20.398s
5 Daniel Ricciardo Red Bull-Renault 1m20.399s
6 Valtteri Bottas Williams-Mercedes 1m20.448s
7 Felipe Massa Williams-Mercedes 1m20.567s
8 Max Verstappen Toro Rosso-Renault 1m20.710s
9 Sergio Perez Force India-Mercedes 1m20.716s
10 Nico Hulkenberg Force India-Mercedes 1m20.788s
11 Carlos Sainz Toro Rosso-Renault 1m20.942s
12 Romain Grosjean Lotus-Mercedes 1m21.038s
13 Pastor Maldonado Lotus-Mercedes 1m21.261s
14 Marcus Ericsson Sauber-Ferrari 1m21.544s
15 Felipe Nasr Sauber-Ferrari 1m21.788s
16 Alexander Rossi Marussia-Ferrari 1m24.136s
17 Will Stevens Marussia-Ferrari 1m24.386s
18 Kimi Raikkonen Ferrari 1m22.494s
19 Fernando Alonso McLaren-Honda 1m21.779s
20 Jenson Button McLaren-Honda No time
Ferrari’s Sebastian Vettel admitted he pushed too hard in an attempt to beat the Silver Arrows during qualifying. Autosport.com has the news story.
Sebastian Vettel believes he “just tried too hard” on his final lap in Mexican Grand Prix qualifying after failing to beat the Mercedes drivers.
The Ferrari racer hoped the dominant Mercedes of Nico Rosberg and Lewis Hamilton were beatable in qualifying at Mexico City, where the high-altitude has closed the leading cars up.
But in the end nobody could prevent another front row lockout for the constructors’ champion, with Vettel getting closest in third.
“I tried to be a bit closer but in the end I wasn’t,” said Vettel.
“It was difficult, I tried everything. I was happy with my first lap, and on the second I just tried too hard.
“In the end they [Mercedes] were a sniff too quick.
“You can talk about a tenth here or there where you could have squeezed more.
“But I was missing four tenths in the end so the gap was too big.”
Vettel joked to the Mercedes drivers that he hopes they will have another first corner falling-out following their altercation last weekend in the US GP, asking “Will you take each other out so I can go through?”
But pole-sitter Rosberg, who denied being motivated by anger this weekend, played down the chances of any repeat.
“It’s no different, it will always be a battle,” he said.
“What happened in the past is in the past, now we move forward.”
Hamilton is optimistic of being able to attack into Turn 1 though, with the long start/finish straight offering plenty of time to snatch the lead.
“[Second] is one of the best spots to start as it’s quite a long way down to Turn 1,” he said.
“I’m happy with my spot. Nico has been quick this weekend, I just wasn’t quick enough.
“We have quite a different set-up this weekend, it might not be perfect for qualifying but it’ll be good for the race.”
The pressure is mounting on Sergio Perez but the sole Mexican driver in the country’s first Formula One grand prix in 23 years is handling it well, according to Force India co-owner Vijay Mallya.
Perez, on the podium in Russia this month and hitting a rich vein of form, has been at the centre of attention all week with Sunday’s race at the revamped Hermanos Rodriguez circuit a career highlight whatever the result.
More than 100,000 spectators are expected to turn out on Sunday after 89,000 attended Friday’s free practice sessions — more than turn up on race day at some venues with less tradition or local fervour.
Judging from the roar that went up whenever Perez’s car appeared in sight, most will be cheering for the 25-year-old Guadalajara native.
“There is pressure, particularly in a home race where Checo (Perez) is a superstar and has so many fans,” Mallya told Reuters.
“But I think he’s mature enough to handle that pressure. In fact, coming off two strong performances in Sochi and then in Austin, he is really raring to go here in front of his home fans.
“That’s my reading of the situation based on my conversations with him. He knows it’s a competitive car and just has to relax and enjoy his racing. He’s certainly not wilting under any pressure, doesn’t show any signs of it.”
Veteran Formula One insider Jo Ramirez, who worked with Brazilian Ayrton Senna at McLaren and has known every Mexican driver since he left the country for Italy with Ricardo Rodriguez in the early 1960s, hoped that was the case.
“I just hope he controls his nerves,” the 74-year-old told Reuters in the paddock. “The passion he is going to have. He never really drove here. It’s 23 years since the grand prix was here.
“I saw in Brazil what happened with Ayrton Senna. Everybody wanted a piece of him, a photo, a signature, an interview…”
One headline in the national daily newspaper Reforma summed up a concern that all the attention could prevent Perez performing to his best: “Dejenlo Trabajar” (Let him work).
“I want to give all the Mexican fans who come to the track this week something to celebrate on Sunday…I am feeling optimistic that I will be able to deliver a good result for them,” he said.
Source: Reuters
Sebastian Vettel says that he will put everything on the line in Sunday’s Formula 1 Gran Premio de Mexico 2015 in order to fend off Nico Rosberg in their fight for second place in the drivers’ championship.
Vettel – currently four points ahead – will start directly behind his fellow German, who is on pole for the fourth straight event. And while the Ferrari star couldn’t challenge Mercedes over a single lap in qualifying, he believes they will be far more competitive over the 71-lap race on the Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez.
“We are here to fight, we have nothing to lose,” Vettel said after qualifying. “Nico is the primary target. We want to keep second position in the championship and we’ll do everything we can to achieve that.
“On Friday we seemed to be very quick on the long-runs. Obviously it is always difficult to know what other people are doing, but considering that we were on the harder tyre, we seemed to be very quick.
“I hope we can be quick tomorrow as well, and make the tyres last. I think this will be the key for the race because on paper it looks easy, but then, with all the sliding around from low grip surface, we’ve seen many people struggling to keep their tyres alive. Who knows what happens – I think it should be exciting for all of us.”
Vettel has scored podiums in seven of the last eight races, and all of the last five – including victory in Singapore. Rosberg, by contrast, has two podiums from his last five outings, with retirements in Italy and Russia major factors in his current deficit to Vettel in the table.
Source: Formula1.com