Suzuka, October 4, 2014 – For the eighth time this year, there is an all-Mercedes front row, with Nico Rosberg leading Lewis Hamilton. Both drivers used tyre strategy during qualifying, being the only people able to complete just one run in Q2 on medium tyres, nominated together with the hard tyre this weekend. As a result, Rosberg and Hamilton are the only drivers in the top 10 to have a new set of medium tyres for the race.
The warm conditions seen yesterday continued during qualifying, with ambient temperatures of 27 degrees centigrade and a track temperature of 38 degrees at the start of the session. Only the Mercedes, Williams, McLarens, Red Bulls and Ferrari of Fernando Alonso used just the hard tyre to get through Q1.
Nico Rosberg, Pole -That was one of the best qualifying sessions we did this year. The team did an incredible job to give me a brilliant car. It was so enjoyable to drive this wonderful track with that Silver Arrow. The balance was perfect, so I was able to push a lot and go to the limits in the corners. It’s always a great battle against Lewis; we push each other very much through the sessions. Sometime he finds a tenth there, then I find a tenth here. That’s why I enjoy the situation so much. For tomorrow I think we are well prepared. Even in the wet our car is very quick as we have seen in Spa this year. So I definitely look forward to the race here in Japan. Again I need to thank the incredible fans here. They wait for hours to see us drivers and give us little gifts. That gives us a very special feeling.
Lewis Hamilton, 2nd-It wasn’t the best of sessions today but it was a decent recovery considering the crash in FP3. I just overcooked it this morning and the team did a fantastic job to put the car back together. Our mechanics are the best, they work so hard to get everything perfect. I feel good but I just wasn’t quick enough today. Nico did a great job, he looked very quick, particularly in Turn Eight, but I don’t feel like I’ve quite had the pace all weekend. I’m still second and we’ve seen races where we’ve come back from further than that, so I’m excited for tomorrow. I’ve heard there’s some rain coming, it’s going to make it very hard but it makes it more of a lottery.
Valtteri Bottas, Williams Martini 3rd – The goal was to be third and fourth behind the Mercedes so it’s good to have accomplished that. The gap to the top two was actually closer than we had expected so it’s positive to have closed that. Suzuka isn’t an easy circuit, and the chance of a typhoon tomorrow makes it even harder. I think we still have a chance to get a podium position regardless of the weather.
From that point on, all the drivers used the medium tyre only: now reckoned to be just over half a second quicker than the hard, with the performance gap between the two compounds having come down as a result of track evolution.
The medium tyre is likely to be the most crucial one for the race – so the drivers tried to keep as many fresh sets as possible, because of the high thermal degradation. In Q2, only the Mercedes drivers were able to save a set of medium tyres (compared to the others) by completing just one run. Like all the Q3 runners, they did two runs in the final session. Rosberg set his pole lap on his second run, and although the track was getting progressively faster, nobody was subsequently able to beat it.
Williams’ Valtteri Bottas, who qualified third, was the only other person apart from Hamilton to get to within one second of pole. In the final free practice session this morning, Rosberg was again fastest using the medium tyre.
