Nico Rosberg says his the cause of his dramatic tyre blow-out yesterday still isn’t fully understood.
Speaking after qualifying second for tomorrow’s race, Rosberg admitted: “The problem is that we don’t really understand it.”
“There’s theories but there’s no real evidence and so that’s a bit worrying, for sure.”
Pirelli has said there is no indication the blow-out was caused by a fault with the tyre, and believe an “external source” was responsible.
Rosberg said the team have nonetheless taken steps to prevent a repeat of the failure, which occurred at over 300kph.
“We’re keeping a very close eye on it and we’ve done some measures to make sure it doesn’t happen again,” he said. “So we’ve done the best we can and just hope that it all works out and stays together.”
Rosberg ran team mate Lewis Hamilton close in the first two parts of qualifying but was soundly beaten in the pole position shoot-out, where Hamilton had a significant advantage in the middle sector.
“I lost the bit this morning in free practice, we went the wrong way,” Rosberg explained. “And then it came back really nicely, I had a good balance in qualifying so I was happy with that, good team effort. Thanks for the, to get the balance back so I could push well.”
“And Lewis was too quick in the end, just found that little bit – or quite a lot – extra which I didn’t have in my pocket. That’s it, so of course disappointing.”
However Rosberg expects he will have a good chance to challenge Hamilton at the start of tomorrow’s race.
“With the new start situation that we’re having to do everything ourselves there’s a lot more opportunity tomorrow, even at the start. And the run down to turn five here it’s possible to overtake, we’ve seen that many times. So for sure my hopes are still high.
Robbie (@robbie)
22nd August 2015, 15:21
Unless NR becomes the master starter, he needs to worry more about LH’s 10-1 quali blow-out than the tire blow-out.
Alan Holler (@hoeyster1998)
22nd August 2015, 15:22
Hopefully the new start rule will spice things up.
OmarR-Pepper - Vettel 41 wins!!! For Jules (@)
22nd August 2015, 15:28
@hoeyster1998 if not, I mean, if lap 1 to lap 6 nothing, absolutely nothing happens in the starting order, I’ll turn it off and wish Hamilton a happy win. As Mr 44 likes to post hashtagged phrases, #itmightbeawfullyboringtomorrow
George (@george)
22nd August 2015, 17:10
@omarr-pepper
Places 3-10 should be very interesting though, I fully expect the Mercs to run away but I’m looking forward to it anyway.
Supremacy (@supremacy)
23rd August 2015, 12:50
Something tells me you won’t turn it off, as anything might still happen.
RogerA
22nd August 2015, 16:05
this high deg philosophy has caused so many problems since 2011 that its time to move away from it & return to proper racing tyres which can be pushed harder for longer.
if the drivers don’t have confidence in the tyres & along with the fans are fed up of the high degredation tyre management nonsense its clear that things need to change!
John H (@john-h)
22nd August 2015, 17:30
Wasn’t the ‘external source’ the standard excuse for all the tyre failures in 2013? Better to say we don’t know at the moment than for them to suggest the responsibility lies elsewhere. I’m sure the paddock hasn’t got that short a memory.
Patrickl (@patrickl)
22nd August 2015, 17:36
So did he hit the sleeper at Radillion or not? Shouldn’t be too difficult to figure that out.
Billys (@bilarxos)
22nd August 2015, 19:50
At GP3 race , the tyre of the leader, E.Ocon , shows the same symptoms of Rosberg’s tyre, the fibres is visible at the top of Eau-Rouge, but nothing happens similar ,thankfully, due to 2 VSC how appears and the last 6-7 laps it was easy to him to manage the pressure on that tyre.