Nico Rosberg secured a trophy after qualifying on pole for Sunday’s Brazilian grand prix.<\/p>\n
But it’s not the one he really wants.\u00a0 That one was packed into a box last week by outgoing world champion Sebastian Vettel and sent back to the FIA.<\/p>\n
The next name engraved on it will be either Rosberg’s, or championship leader and favourite Lewis Hamilton, his teammate at Mercedes.<\/p>\n
German Rosberg is 24 points behind with only Sunday’s race and then the double-points bonanza in Abu Dhabi left to run.<\/p>\n
Told he now has ‘nothing to lose’ in his chase to catch Hamilton before the chequer, Rosberg insisted at Interlagos: “I wouldn’t call the title ‘nothing to lose’!”<\/p>\n
It is why he is not overly fussed at having secured F1’s inaugural pole position trophy, awarded to the driver who completes a season with the most qualifying triumphs.<\/p>\n
In 2014, with his impressive tenth pole of the year secured in Brazil, the winner is Rosberg.<\/p>\n
He secured the prize in style with the fastest ever qualifying lap of Interlagos, thanks to a new asphalt and the fact the new turbo engines are not affected by Sao Paulo’s high altitude.<\/p>\n
“In this moment it means nothing to me,” Rosberg said coolly on Saturday.\u00a0 “Maybe in ten years I will look back on it (the pole trophy), but right now my focus is somewhere else.”<\/p>\n
He is referring to the big trophy Vettel just sent back in a box.<\/p>\n
In truth, however, the biggest pressure now is probably on Hamilton, who is tantalisingly close to wrapping up his second career drivers’ title.<\/p>\n
Told that he needs to win the last two races of 2014 to win from 24 points down, Rosberg insisted: “Not true.”<\/p>\n
The meticulous 29-year-old is right, as even if he does win in Brazil and Abu Dhabi, a pair of second places will be enough for Hamilton.<\/p>\n
So another hope for Rosberg is mechanical trouble for his British rival.<\/p>\n
“I don’t like to talk about it,” Rosberg was quoted earlier in Brazil by Spain’s El Confidencial, “but I don’t want Lewis’ engine to break.”<\/p>\n
He then joked: “I would prefer that mine breaks here in Brazil and his in Abu Dhabi!”<\/p>\n
With controversial double points on offer, that scenario would in fact probably hand Rosberg the title.<\/p>\n
He admitted: “I know that for me to win (the title), something has to happen.\u00a0 It’s not just in my hands.\u00a0 But in this sport, so much can happen.<\/p>\n
“I need Lewis’ help to win the title,” Rosberg acknowledged to Bild newspaper.\u00a0 “I need to chase him until he makes mistakes.”<\/p>\n
\u00a9 RIF | GMM<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Nico Rosberg secured a trophy after qualifying on pole for Sunday’s Brazilian grand prix. But it’s not the one he really wants.\u00a0 That one was packed into a box last week by outgoing world champion Sebastian Vettel and sent back to the FIA. The next name engraved on it will be either Rosberg’s, or championship …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":24349,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0},"categories":[3],"tags":[2059,5262,5300,5340,154,4],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.racinginfocus.com\/rif\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25557"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.racinginfocus.com\/rif\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.racinginfocus.com\/rif\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.racinginfocus.com\/rif\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.racinginfocus.com\/rif\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=25557"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.racinginfocus.com\/rif\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25557\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":25558,"href":"https:\/\/www.racinginfocus.com\/rif\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25557\/revisions\/25558"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.racinginfocus.com\/rif\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/24349"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.racinginfocus.com\/rif\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=25557"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.racinginfocus.com\/rif\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=25557"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.racinginfocus.com\/rif\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=25557"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}