‘Maximising weekends’ key to Rosberg recovery

Nico Rosberg says the fix to his quiet start to the season is “just a matter of maximising the weekends”, as the Mercedes driver looks to start reeling in team-mate Lewis Hamilton in Sunday’s Spanish Grand Prix.

Although Rosberg claimed four podium-finishes in as many events, he is yet to outqualify or outrace championship leader Hamilton in 2015 while also being under threat from Ferrari’s Sebastian Vettel in the Drivers' standings.

However, last year’s runner-up remains confident he can turn things around by fine-tuning a few details across the board.

“It’s just a matter of maximizing the weekends,” Rosberg said. “It’s not really come together until now. Parts have gone well but other parts not so well and I just need to put it all together and of course I’ll start to try and do that from here onwards.

“Of course the results speak for themselves. It’s pretty clear. That’s it. For me it’s Barcelona. It’s a race on its own and I come here after a personal feeling boost from Bahrain. I just want to optimise this weekend and that’s it.”

This weekend’s visit to Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya will see Rosberg return to a track where he showed tremendous pace during pre-season testing.

Asked if he expected Mercedes to enjoy a similar gap to its nearest rival this time around, the 29-year-old thinks the situation will be more akin to another tightly contested affair.

“We expect it to be similar now to the last couple of races. We still hope to be in front in qualifying and in the race it’s going to be very close. I think it’s going to continue.

“Of course here everybody has bought some updates, so that might shuffle things around a little bit – but the general trend is probably going to stay very similar.”

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