Adam Cooper F1

Nico Rosberg missed victory in the Spanish GP by just 0.636s, but that tiny margin still added up to a fourth straight defeat by Mercedes team mate Lewis Hamilton.

It also meant that he’s lost the World Championship lead that he’s had since he won the Australian GP after Hamilton’s early retirement. Rosberg said his best chance to get ahead was at the start.

“The start unfortunately was poor,” said Rosberg. “It’s a bit of a weakness that we have at the moment, just inconsistent and now I’ve had a couple of bad starts in a row – actually three bad starts in the races. And that’s costly. Always losing out at the start, that’s not good, I need to work on that.

“Other than that, I felt comfortable, race pace was good. Best thing to do was to switch strategies. That was planned before the race. It worked out well, worked out perfectly – but this is a really, really difficult track to get close to the guy in front. I still got close, Turn 10, the last lap. I could have gone for a kamikaze move but it wouldn’t have worked. Lewis did a great job the whole weekend and just that little bit ahead. But there’s a lot of positives for me to take out of it.”

Rosberg said he was happy with the decision to run a different strategy to Hamilton by using up the harder tire in the middle stint, although he admitted there was some confusion on the radio.

“There was a misunderstanding from my side because we were going to go prime second stint – there were two variables. There was one where we go prime second stint if we have graining in the first stint or I go prime second stint to try and beat Lewis, if I feel that pace-wise I can be quicker and have a shot at it. I thought they were going prime because they thought I had graining but I didn’t have graining, so that’s why I was confused but then I understood: it was to offset my strategy so that I would have a chance to fight Lewis at the end, so it was fine, and just what I wanted.”

The big question remains what can he do to start turning things in his direction – although he says there is no need to adjust his approach.

“There’s not much to change. The race was really lost in qualifying and at the start. Those were the two opportunities I had. Qualifying was very very close, I even had a bit of a problem which we found in hindsight, where I was a little bit down on power on the straight. but the difference was not enough to get pole, but still it was actually even closer than it looked.

“And then just had a poor start, so those were the two shots that I had at it and it didn’t work out. And then in the race, I nearly got another opportunity at the very end but again, just not enough. One more lap and I could have given it a go, I think, but I would have done everything the same again at the start of the weekend. Of course, I also missed FP1 which doesn’t help either. Many small things which add up, and there are only very small gaps. So, next time.”

Red Bull Racing underlined its position as the team chasing Mercedes as Daniel Ricciardo led the chase with his third place in Barcelona.

Even better news for the team was that Sebastian Vettel drove a superb race from 15th to fourth, indicating that he finally feels at home in the RB10.

“It’s very encouraging that we’ve had a positive race today,” said Christian Horner. “The 48s gap is slightly artificial because we lost a lot of time behind the Williams in the first stint, and then once you find yourself in no man’s land it’s about managing the tyres to the end of the race. So if you look at the last stints in particular when Mercedes were pushing flat out, and Sebastian and Daniel had a bit of clear air, we’ve definitely moved a bit closer.

“There’s still some way to go, but we have definitely moved a bit closer. And for sure they were pushing as hard as they could, so it wasn’t like Mercedes were taking it easy. It’s a significant gap that we’ve still got to overcome, but great to see that we have made progress, and taken a step ahead of the Ferraris and the rest of the field.”

Horner was full of praise for Vettel after his impressive charge: “It was a great performance by Seb today, he really went for it. He passed pretty much everywhere, apart from the conventional place at the end of the straight. He made the strategy work for him, he knew he had to make the passes. I thought it was a fantastic drive by him today.

“This weekend you could see in the race, the recovery drive he had, fastest lap, the way he hunted down the Ferraris, it looked like he’s got his mojo back.”

Bernie Ecclestone met with F1 race promoters in Barcelona on Saturday, and inevitably engine noise was top of the agenda.

Melbourne’s Ron Walker was among those who stressed that it’s a serious issue that has to be addressed, due to the negative reaction from fans. The consensus was that next week’s test by Mercedes will be crucial.

If the results are successful, and the exhaust modification is deemed to have no performance impact on any of the three power units, the hope is that it can be introduced as soon as possible.

“Everybody’s looking forward to what the ‘megaphone’ is going to be like,” said Mercedes boss Toto Wolff. “I think there are different opinions around the paddock about what’s going to happen or not. We were asked by the FIA and Bernie to put the device on the car, and see if it’s really effective. We are pretty clear, if the fans want to have more noise, and it’s making the car not only sound better but also be perceived in a more attractive way then we would be [behind it].

“Then hopefully the other teams will vote in favour as well., As you know it’s part of the technical regulations, if you want to implement it in the season you need a unanimous vote. There are not lots of times in that paddock where you have unanimous votes. It will be an interesting one.”

Daniel Ricciardo continues to impress the F1 paddock with his strong form, and on a weekend when team mate Sebastian Vettel has been hampered by technical gremlins the Aussie has showcased his talent by securing third on the Barcelona grid.

The downside is that he was over a second slower than pacesetter Lewis Hamilton.

“I think we’re again sort of best of the rest but that’s not quite good enough,” he said. “We’re still a second off and the lap, I thought my lap was not too bad, so I was expecting a smaller gap than that. I think we’ve made some improvement but they – they being Mercedes – have as well. So we would have liked to have closed that but we have some work ahead of us. On a positive note we’re a clear third today.”

Ricciardo hopes that he might benefit from better tyre degradation than rivals.

“If we can do something about Lewis and Nico we will try our best and then yes, the pace yesterday was good, still not as good as a Mercedes but I think in relative terms we made the tyres last a long way. I think if there’s any issues with making a two stop possible, if the race ends up being more of a three stop, then we might be in that window to do a two but we will see how we go. We have to assess everything after lap one and then push from there, but it’s a tricky one here. You push but you’re in conservative mode for the tyres as well. It’s one of those tracks where tyre wear is a big one.”

Regarding the gap to Mercedes he said: “For us it’s just to keep closing that gap to them. On a positive, we’re the best of the rest but we’ve still got to keep the others, keep the guys we have behind us behind us, but to close to them. A second is too much. Even with a different strategy in the race it’s going to be very hard to make up a second per lap. We’ve got to just keep chipping away. Obviously they’re doing a great job and, yeah, I’m sure I can still learn a bit. As I am, I think, each race. We’ll put up a fight tomorrow and at least try to get on the podium. And if we can’t do anything about them, then keep the rest behind us.”

Sebastain Vettel is set to drop from 10th to 15th on the Spanish GP grid thanks to a gearbox change penalty.

The German lost second gear as he accelerated out of the pits at the start of Q3, and then lost all his gears by the time he got to Turn One.

Although teams can replace damaged components under parc ferme rules the team clearly decided that it would be a safer plan to change the whole thing and take the penalty.

Those who move up a place are Nico Hulkenberg, Sergio Perez, Daniil Kvyat, Esteban Gutierrez and Kevin Magnussen.