Rosberg keeps World Championship hopes alive

Rosberg had been faster than his team mate all through practice, and he repeated the feat in Q1 and Q2. On the first runs in Q3 he logged a lap of 1m10.166s to the 1m10.195s of his team mate. Incredibly the margin was even closer on the final runs as Hamilton improved to 1m10.056s – despite a costly locking-up moment – before Nico crossed the line with 1m10.023s.

The adrenaline is there, the tension, the excitement, it’s not been changing that much.

Nico Rosberg

“It's a perfect job only if it works out tomorrow, unfortunately,” he said. “Up to now, of course, it’s been going well and it’s the best place to be in tomorrow but of course I need to make it happen in the race, unlike Austin for example.”

Learning from Austin

Regarding the pressure he's under, he said: “It’s pretty much similar. The adrenaline is there, the tension, the excitement, it’s not been changing that much. I’m just here; I’m going for it. I’m pushing myself to stay optimistic all the time. Naturally I am optimistic also. Learn from Austin; I know what I need to do better. So, from that point of view, good to go for tomorrow.

“I understand what I needed to improve in Austin. I didn’t find my rhythm in the race and I understand that, we looked at it and so I’m confident that I can improve that for tomorrow. Anyways, it’s a different situation: different track, here we’ve done more long runs, we even did a long run this morning which will help, in exactly the same conditions as we expect tomorrow. So all those things should be very helpful.

“I’m sure the start is going to be great to watch but being on the clean side of the grid, and it’s not such a long run down to Turn One, so that should definitely be helpful.”