Rosberg takes pole
November 8, 2014
The 29-year-old Rosberg finished just 0.033 seconds faster than Hamilton as the two go head-to-head for the drivers' championship over the next two races. Rosberg completed a clean sweep of Saturday. finishing fastest in the three practice sessions and securing his tenth pole position of the season.
Hamilton leads Rosberg by 24 points with tomorrow's race in Brazil and the final showdown on November 23 in Abu Dhabi still to come. Rosberg remains hopeful of turning the deficit around with points counting for double in the Middle East on the last outing.
To have any reasonable hope of securing the drivers' the championship, Rosberg needs to win on Sunday and have Hamilton suffer a setback. There are 75 points still up for grabs.
"It's clear that I need to rely on something happening," Rosberg said last week. "For sure, it's not enough for me to win, unfortunately, but that's the way it is. In sports, so much can happen, so I'm still very optimistic."
The two Williams drivers Felipe Massa and Valterri Bottas start third and fourth, respectively. McLaren's Jenson Button lines up fifth, and Sebastian Vettel of Red Bull begins from sixth.
rd / jc (dpa, Reuters)