Rosberg on pole as Kvyat has dramatic crash

Sep 26, 2015
4 min read

Nico Rosberg carried through his momentum from FP3 to take his second pole position of the year ahead of team mate Lewis Hamilton, who was just 0.076s off the German. It marks a return to form for Mercedes after a difficult Singapore Grand Prix weekend.

“Very happy, great day today, and a good comeback for the team,” said Rosberg, “It's fantastic after Singapore to be back to our usual strength. Pretty much nailed my laps today. Really pleased with the way it went.”

On his first run, Hamilton got oversteer on the exit of Degner 2 and then locked up on the way into the hairpin. Given how close he was to Rosberg, it is likely that Hamilton could have taken pole position on the second run.

“The second lap was looking good," he said, "The first lap I lost a bit of time in Turn 11 and the last corner. Nico is driving very well this weekend but I was feeling pretty good on that last lap."

However, the session was red flagged for a spectacular crash for Daniil Kvyat. The Russian dipped a wheel onto the grass on the way into the hairpin and ran into the tyre barrier before rolling in the gravel trap. Thankfully, Kvyat was ok and walked away from the accident.

“It was a rookie mistake,” he said, “I put two wheels on the grass and that’s it.

“There was no run-off area so it was quite a logical end. I’m sorry for the guys, it’s been a tough couple of weeks and now it’s extra work for them.”

Red Bull team principal Christian Horner confirmed not long after qualifying that the team will be changing Kvyat’s chassis as a precautionary measure. This means he will be starting from the pit lane for tomorrow’s race. The team will most likely change the aero levels on the car so as to make the car quicker in a straight line to help with overtaking.

Williams’ Valtteri Bottas was 3rd ahead of Sebastian Vettel, who looked to be the weaker of the two Ferrari drivers but Kimi Raikkonen was unable to deliver the lap time when it matter. The Finn qualified 6th, just a hundredth behind Felipe Massa in 5th.

Despite showing strong in FP3, Daniel Ricciardo could do no better than 7th place, nine tenths off the pace of the Mercedes. He was ahead of Romain Grosjean in 9th, and Sergio Perez who did not set a lap during Q3.

Nico Hulkenberg just missed out on the top 10 shootout by a tenth of a second and was left 11th, but will take a 3-place grid penalty for his collision with Felipe Massa in Singapore, which will elevate Carlos Sainz, Pastor Maldonado and Fernando Alonso.

Max Verstappen had an odd end to Q1 where his electronics shut down at the end of the session, leaving him stranded on the exit of the hairpin. The team asked him on the radio if everything was ok with the car, but he was unable to respond.

He had made it through to the next session, but was unable to go out. The incident brought out the yellow flags which, for the second consecutive race, hampered McLaren, particularly Jenson Button.

The Brit was already on the back foot having missed out on a qualifying run in FP3 with a broken floor, but he was on a lap which he felt would have gotten him into Q2 when the yellow flags came out. But he was also frustrated by some errors the team made during qualifying.

“On the first run I wasn't told what engine mode to be in," said Button, "Every time before a timed lap we are told before we start and I wasn't told so I was in the wrong setting and it emptied the [battery] pack after half a lap.

"They forgot to tell me, so I went to the one that I would normally go to and that just emptied the pack halfway around the lap, so the last half of the lap I didn't have any deployment.

"We can't make little mistakes like this. It's the simple things. We've got bigger things to worry about.

"You have a chance of doing something, but we definitely messed up.”

Button was joined in a Q1 exit by Marcus Ericsson, who spun into the gravel at Spoon Curve on his hot lap. His team mate Felipe Nasr was another victim of the yellow flags which left him 18th, ahead of only the two Manor cars, with Will Stevens leading Alexander Rossi, whose lap time was outside of the 107% rule, but will likely be allowed to race as his time in FP3 was within the time.

Final classification