After a stewards enquiry after qualifying for the Hungarian Grand Prix, Nico Rosberg was able to keep his pole position although some rivals – including teammate Lewis Hamilton – questioned whether he had slowed sufficiently for a yellow flag.
“Nico only lost a tenth,” said the reigning world champion, while Daniel Ricciardo also complained that the Fernando Alonso spin cost him a shot at pole.
Hamilton added: “If that’s really what we are allowed to do in future it’s a different rule for all us drivers.”
Red Bull official Helmut Marko called it a “farce” that despite setting his fastest overall sector in the yellow flag zone, Rosberg kept his pole.
Red Bull team chief Christian Horner also questioned the legitimacy of the pole winning lap, “One thing I couldn’t understand which I need to check is Rosberg was behind Daniel, and managed to get a purple middle sector. I don’t know if they had it cleared by the time he got there….”
Rosberg explained after qualifying, “For sure there was a waved yellows but I had a very, very big lift and lost a lot of time as a result. I was also slower than on my previous lap in that yellow sector.”
Mercedes F1 chief Toto Wolff backed his driver claiming that the team’s data proved the championship leader lifted sufficiently at the right time.
“[Rosberg] had a big lift into the yellow zone, lost quite some time. But then at the end the yellow zone was gone. It should be OK from our data,” Wolff told Sky.
The FIA stewards agreed: “The telemetry demonstrated that the driver reduced speed significantly into turn eight.”
Read the full story at GRAND PRIX 247
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