Hamilton: "Different approach" needed to pass Rosberg at the start

Lewis Hamilton has promised to try a "different approach" to the start of the Mexican Grand Prix in a bid to overhaul team-mate Nico Rosberg before the first corner.

Polesitter Nico Rosberg, Mercedes AMG F1

Start: Nico Rosberg, Mercedes AMG F1 W06 leads

A number of drivers are predicting an intense blast away from the grid, with it being the longest straight drag down to the first corner of the season.

Hamilton thinks that the situation is such that being in front away from the line may not be an advantage – although there is no guarantee that a driver will be able to overtake before the braking zone.

“It is better to be just behind,” said the Mercedes driver. “Coming into the weekend I thought about if I was on pole it would be difficult to hold off the guy behind, because it is a long, long way to slipstream someone.

“But look at Russia, Nico was able to hold me off into Turn 1. I have to think of a different approach.

“I am super wary of the things that can happen or could happen, and I think about all the different scenarios whether I am behind into Turn 1 or alongside, or I am on the outside. I will look at all those and make sure I have got them covered.”

Rosberg took encouragement from what happened in Russia, when Hamilton was not able to get past him despite a slipstream.

“In Sochi, for example, we saw that once Lewis came out of the slipstream he just stopped there, and from then on we had the same speed all the way down,” he said. “It is a little bit harder than on other tracks, but not a major difference.”

Bottleneck chaos

Red Bull's Daniel Ricciardo believes it could be a pretty fraught first few seconds to the race.

“It's going to be pretty hectic, I think,” said the Australian, who starts in fifth place behind team-mate Daniil Kvyat.

“I'd sure love to be ahead of Daniil, but looking at it, I think the clean side is probably going to help me. Fifth is probably better than fourth.

“I assume the inside guys will struggle a bit and it's probably going to bottleneck a lot of the field down coming down to Turn 1.

“For us it's trying to find a tow, and then looking at doing something more towards the braking zone. I don't want to find myself without a tow halfway down the straight.”