Nico Rosberg adamant he lifted enough for Alonso's yellow flags
Nico Rosberg beat Mercedes teammate Lewis Hamilton to pole in Hungary, but it took a little good fortune to help him along.
Hamilton had to abort his final run because Fernando Alonso had spun, but by the time Rosberg arrived the McLaren driver had begun to move away. There were still waved yellows and, despite a brief lift to keep the FIA happy, Rosberg set his best time.
“It was unbelievable,” said Rosberg of the wet/dry session. “Just changing all the time, and so many things count, even just getting a gap at the end of the lap. Everybody is backing off and to make sure you get a good gap there was difficult, even for there, because the time was quite tight. And then, I really nailed that last lap, so I’m very happy about that.”
Rosberg was adamant that he had lifted enough for the waved yellow flags: “For sure there were double waved, yeah, but I had a very, very big lift and lost a lot of time as a result and I was also slower than on my previous lap in that yellow sector, or in that yellow segment, or whatever it’s called, so I’m sure it will be OK.”
Remarkably, Rosberg has never finished on the podium in Hungary, and he’s aiming to put that right.
“I don’t really think of the past in those ways, just looking forward to it now, because of pole position and I’ve been really feeling good out there the whole weekend, in all conditions, wet, dry, even with high fuel on Friday, so it’s been a great weekend so far. Looking forward to the race and a great opportunity tomorrow.
“Concerning tires, it’s going to be, I think quite straightforward. Of course the supersoft is going to be very difficult initially, that’s going to be interesting how that goes. There could be some big differences there. After that, it’s going to be OK.”
The stewards investigated the incident but decided to take no further action.
