Categories: F1 News, Reports and Race ResultsMercedes

Rosberg focused on beating Hamilton

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Nico Rosberg is focusing on outqualifying team-mate Lewis Hamilton in the Austrian Grand Prix despite the threat posed by Ferrari.

Sebastian Vettel set the pace in FP2, with Rosberg just 0.011s adrift of the fastest time at the end of the second session. Having pinpointed his qualifying performance in Canada as the main reason for his inability to beat Hamilton in the race, Rosberg says beating his team-mate is his priority on Saturday.

"Qualifying is important, it always is, especially against Lewis so I need to try and be in front," Rosberg said.

"It is all about adapting. The track is different to last year. You think it is the same but actually you can never expect it to be the same. We had some small issues with the balance and getting the set-up right.

"It is not more of a challenge. It always is to get the car right and that is why we are challenged on a Friday to be perfect for qualifying and the race."

And Rosberg says he isn't surprised to see Ferrari so close on pace due to the short nature of the Red Bull Ring.

"On this track everyone is always a bit closer and they seem quick today

"You always have a bit in your pocket on the Friday to pull out in qualifying, but maybe over a long run they were closer, though in general everyone is closer here.

"Ferrari we are always a bit worried about them because they are our closest rival and this is a short track so naturally everyone will be closer and they seem to be quick here."

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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.