Rosberg stuns Hamilton in Austin

Nico showed Lewis some HammerZeitpunkt in Austin.  

While the British driver repeatedly locked up, flat spotting at leas two sets of tires, including the ones he will have to start the race on, Rosberg threw down a a 1:36.067 lap.  almost 4.10th faster than his rival, an eternity in F1.

The Pole shootout for the season now stands 9 to 7 in Rosberg's favor.

Nico's lap was also over 3/10th faster than last year's pole by Sebastian Vettel.  The cars have nominally softer tires this year but they are also heavier and have less downforce on a track that demands high downforce.   Very interesting.

Tomorrow Hamilton, who dominated all the previous practice session, will be hoping turn one and DRS, will be his friends.

Pos	No	Driver	Team	Q1	Q2	Q3	Laps
1	6	Nico Rosberg	Mercedes	1:38.303	1:36.290	1:36.067	20
2	44	Lewis Hamilton	Mercedes	1:37.196	1:37.287	1:36.443	16
3	77	Valtteri Bottas	Williams-Mercedes	1:38.249	1:37.499	1:36.906	19
4	19	Felipe Massa	Williams-Mercedes	1:37.877	1:37.347	1:37.205	20
5	3	Daniel Ricciardo	Red Bull Racing-Renault	1:38.814	1:37.873	1:37.244	17
6	14	Fernando Alonso	Ferrari	1:38.349	1:38.010	1:37.610	16
7	22	Jenson Button	McLaren-Mercedes	1:38.574	1:38.024	1:37.655	17
8	20	Kevin Magnussen	McLaren-Mercedes	1:38.557	1:38.047	1:37.706	16
9	7	Kimi Räikkönen	Ferrari	1:38.669	1:38.263	1:37.804	22
10	99	Adrian Sutil	Sauber-Ferrari	1:38.855	1:38.378	1:38.810	15
11	13	Pastor Maldonado	Lotus-Renault	1:38.608	1:38.467	16
12	11	Sergio Perez	Force India-Mercedes	1:39.200	1:38.554	16
13	27	Nico Hulkenberg	Force India-Mercedes	1:38.931	1:38.598	16
14	26	Daniil Kvyat	STR-Renault	1:38.936	1:38.699	17
15	25	Jean-Eric Vergne	STR-Renault	1:39.250	10
16	21	Esteban Gutierrez	Sauber-Ferrari	1:39.555	10
17	1	Sebastian Vettel	Red Bull Racing-Renault	1:39.621	3
18	8	Romain Grosjean	Lotus-Renault	1:39.679	8