Are you willing to sponsor?
Are you ready to explore the transformative power of athlete sponsorship for your brand? Click here to learn more about how sponsorship can help brands grow and thrive in the exciting world of motorsports.
By Emanuele Venturoli| Posted November 27, 2015 | In Formula1, MotoGP, Sport News, Sport Sponsorship, Sports Marketing
Nico Rosberg has claimed pole position for the 2015 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix, the final race of the season. The German led team-mate Lewis Hamilton by 4 tenths, meaning that he now taken 6 pole positions in a row. The result also means that Mercedes have now taken the most amount of front row lock-outs in a single season; with 15 now their tally this year.
Hamilton originally seemed to have the edge over his team-mate, leading both Q1 and Q2 before coming undone in the final session. Hamilton would go on to blame car setup issues for his 4 tenth gap to Rosberg, but there was no denying that Rosberg had put in a stunning lap to take pole with a 1’40.237.
3rd on the grid will be 2012 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix winner Kimi Raikkonen. The Finnish driver was 8 tenths off of Rosberg on pole, with just over a tenth separating him from 4th placed Sergio Perez; who continued to show that Force India had good pace. Daniel Ricciardo was just 3 tenths off of Perez in 5th place for Red Bull.
6th and 7th went to Valtteri Bottas and Nico Hulkenberg, with both separated by under a tenth of a second. Bottas will be gunning to catch Raikkonen in the race, with just 1 point between the two countryman in the championship standings. Valtteri’s team-mate Felipe Massa will start 8th ahead of Daniil Kvyat, with Carlos Sainz completing the top 10.
One of the highlights of the session was the shock elimination of Sebastian Vettel at the end of the first session. Ferrari team principal Maurizio Arrivabene would say after the session that the team made a ‘huge mistake’ after thinking that Vettel’s lap in Q1 was going to be good enough to get him through. They would be mistaken after a late improvement by McLaren’s Jenson Button that would push Vettel out of qualifying.
2015 Abu Dhabi grand prix grid:
POS | Driver | Team | Time | Session |
1 | Nico Rosberg | Mercedes | 1’40.237 | Q3 |
2 | Lewis Hamilton | Mercedes | 1’40.614 | Q3 |
3 | Kimi Raikkonen | Ferrari | 1’41. | Q3 |
4 | Sergio Perez | Force India | 1’41. | Q3 |
5 | Daniel Ricciardo | Red Bull | 1’41. | Q3 |
6 | Valtteri Bottas | Williams | 1’41. | Q3 |
7 | Nico Hulkenberg | Force India | 1’41. | Q3 |
8 | Felipe Massa | Williams | 1’41. | Q3 |
9 | Daniil Kvyat | Red Bull | 1’41. | Q3 |
10 | Carlos Sainz | Toro Rosso | 1’42. | Q3 |
11 | Max Verstappen | Toro Rosso | 1’42. | Q2 |
12 | Jenson Button | McLaren | 1’42. | Q2 |
13 | Pastor Maldonado | Lotus | 1’42. | Q2 |
14 | Felipe Nasr | Sauber | 1’43. | Q2 |
15 | Romain Grosjean | Lotus | No time | Q2 |
16 | Sebastian Vettel | Ferrari | 1’42.941 | Q1 |
17 | Fernando Alonso | McLaren | 1’43.187 | Q1 |
18 | Marcus Ericsson | Sauber | 1’43.838 | Q1 |
19 | Roberto Merhi | Manor | 1’47.434 | Q1 |
20 | Will Stevens* | Manor | 1’46.297 | Q1 |
*Grid penalty for Will Stevens
Are you ready to explore the transformative power of athlete sponsorship for your brand? Click here to learn more about how sponsorship can help brands grow and thrive in the exciting world of motorsports.
A graduate in Public, Social and Political Communication from the University of Bologna, he has always been passionate about marketing, design and sport.
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Read MoreIn an era where it is possible to get anywhere with a click, there is a strong temptation to approach teams and properties directly for sponsorship projects.
By doing so, we are convinced that we are shortening the value chain, saving time and money. However, these DYI methods are anything but risk-free and what initially appears to be a competitive advantage soon turns into a problem that is difficult to resolve. That’s why there are agencies. And this is why you should rely on us for your sponsorships.
When first approaching a sponsorship or sports marketing project, it is difficult to know immediately which stakeholders are correct, what the decision flow is, and what the right timelines are for each process. Sports is a very specialized field of action, and fitting effectively into its paths can take a lot of time and therefore money. We, on the other hand, know referents and spheres of action and know who to talk to, when and how. So you are also more effective.
Sports is an immense passion, and for our heart colors we would be willing to do anything. But business is a different business, and it is important to make the best possible strategic decisions based on independent research, statistics and reliable data. A sports marketing and sports sponsorship agency like RTR has an objective, 360-degree picture of the scenario and can tell you what is really best for you: which sport, which athlete, which team. This is because we possess a great deal of data and information on ratings, segmentation and attitudes. Because the numbers don’t lie. Never.
Activations are the real heart of sports sponsorship. Without them, there remains only a blank sticker on a motorcycle, car or uniform and no contact with the public, no emotional connection, no impact on the bottom line. Then how do you do it? It certainly won’t be the teams or the athletes who will help you leverage sponsorship and enjoy the many marketing rights you have paid for. To bring out the best in a sports marketing project you need an agency that knows how to use sponsorship to engage the fanbase on the Web, to reach out to Shopping Centers, to organize hospitality, to develop B2B and B2C opportunities, and to get “your” athletes in front of millions of potential consumers.
Would you ever go to the dealer who sold you the car and ask if the competitor’s car is better? No, of course. So, how do you expect to get firm measurements of the effectiveness of your sponsorship if you do not rely on someone super partes? At RTR, we have always worked with independent third-party agencies that allow us to know the return on any exposure of your brand on TV and in the media. In addition, we believe in calculating ROI as the ultimate measure of your success-so we can tell you for every penny you spend how much you are making.
We have been involved in sports sponsorship and sports marketing for more than 15 years. We are consultants in the sense that our goal is to maximize your investment, but we are also an agency that manages the project from start to finish. We have been doing this since 1995 with passion and professionalism, following three principles that have become cornerstones of our business: independence, verticality and transparency.
I would like to highlight the fact that one of the qualities of RTR is its great ability to approach the sponsorship scenario strategically, together with its passionate attitude, its amazing enthusiasm for solving problems, and its high level of professionalism.
Gianluca Degliesposti
Executive Director Server&Storage EMEA
Eurosport is truly delighted with its business relationship with Riccardo Tafà, who has become extremely popular, thanks to his detailed knowledge of the sports marketing sector and his highly diligent attitude to work.
Francois Ribeiro
Commercial Director
Passion and Expertise are the features that I have found in RTR since the very beginning. Serious and reliable professionals but also very helpful, nice and open-mind people, willing to listen and compare different ideas. All the values in which RTR believes make this agency a partner, not just a supplier, a partner with whom we have had the opportunity to achieve significant commercial results in term of success and image.
Luca Pacitto
Head of Communication
We have been working with RTR Sports Marketing for over 10 years. The objectives and the programmes of collaboration continue to be renewed and to grow with mutual satisfaction. I believe RTR is a team of great professionals led by Riccardo Tafà, who I consider a manager of exceptional skills and with a great passion for his work.
Lucio Cecchinello
Team Principal
I have known and worked with Riccardo Tafà since 1995 when we collaborated for the first time on a project for the Williams Formula 1 team. Several clients followed. After leaving Williams to work for Gerhard Berger then owner of the Toro Rosso F1 Team, I turned again to Riccardo to seek his help in finding a tool supplier for the team and Riccardo duly obliged with an introduction to USAG, a partnership with Toro Rosso which endured for five years. I recently started a new role as Group Commercial Director for the renowned Andretti Autosport organisation and I find myself working with Riccardo once again on a number of interesting projects. Why has this relationship with Riccardo endured ? He’s smart, knows the commercial side of sport inside out and back to front and he’s honest and trustworthy. Riccardo Tafà is a “doer” not a “talker”: in over 20 years I have never had a dispute either with him or with a company that he has introduced and each partnership introduced by Riccardo has delivered quantifiable ROI to rights holder and sponsor alike. I can think of no better testimonial of Riccardo’s diligence, knowledge, contact base and hard work than that.
Jim Wright
Group Commercial Director
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