Categories: F1 News, Reports and Race ResultsMercedes

Rosberg vows to put pressure on Hamilton

Nico Rosberg vows to put pressure on team-mate Lewis Hamilton after being beaten to pole position for the Monaco Grand Prix.

Hamilton took his first ever pole position in Monaco, giving him an advantage ahead of tomorrow’s race on a circuit which is notoriously difficult for overtaking. However, with Hamilton not putting too much importance on the qualifying result, Rosberg says he will be pushing his team-mate in the hope of forcing him in to a mistake.

“I’m very glad to hear Lewis’ opinion on that,” Rosberg said, referencing Hamilton saying most of the job is still not done. “I’m going to try and keep the pressure up, of course. That’s all I can do tomorrow and that’s all I need to do tomorrow. I’ll do that.”

Having made a mistake himself on his final run, Rosberg admits he didn’t finish qualifying as strongly as he started it.

“I had a good rhythm starting off qualifying, which I didn’t have all weekend so it was good to get in qualifying and then I lost touch a little bit towards the end. Of course I was going for it because I had to because I knew Lewis was going to be quick. So I had to go for it and it didn't work out.”

Rosberg’s bigger mistake came during Q2 when he ran down the escape road at Ste Devote, but he says it didn't have an impact on his performance in the final part of qualifying.

“Of course it’s not ideal, it’s better not to have such a thing in the middle of qualifying but I had two shots in Q3 afterwards. So with two solid runs it doesn’t really have an influence eventually.”

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Andrew Lewin

Andrew first became a fan of Formula 1 during the time when Michael Schumacher and Damon Hill were stepping into the limelight after the era of Alain Prost, Nigel Mansell and Aryton Senna. He's been addicted ever since, and has been writing about the sport now for nearly a quarter of a century for a number of online news sites. He's also written professionally about GP2 (now Formula 2), GP3, IndyCar, World Rally Championship, MotoGP and NASCAR. In his other professional life, Andrew is a freelance writer, social media consultant, web developer/programmer, and digital specialist in the fields of accessibility, usability, IA, online communities and public sector procurement. He worked for many years in magazine production at Bauer Media, and for over a decade he was part of the digital media team at the UK government's communications department. Born and raised in Essex, Andrew currently lives and works in south-west London.