Rosberg surprised by Mercedes pace

Nico Rosberg admits Mercedes has been surprised the margin of its advantage during Friday practice for the Italian Grand Prix.

Mercedes introduced an upgraded power unit at Monza, spending all seven of the development tokens available to it in one go. With both drivers over a second clear of the field in FP1 - a margin which was only cut to 0.75s in FP2 - Rosberg says he didn't expect to have such an advantage.

"We are surprised, we’re quick here normally but we are still pleased with that," Rosberg said. "Lewis has been pretty quick up until now, but I got very close at the end there as we were trying the qualifying run. It’s just 0.02s, so that’s okay and it’s going in the right direction."

And Rosberg says he didn't have any time in hand compared to Lewis Hamilton having been 0.021s slower than his team-mate in FP2.

"No I don’t unfortunately, I lost it in the last two corners and I’m not happy with that because Lewis just seems to be quicker there at the moment. I definitely have to work on those tonight, look at his onboard, see where he is turning in, how much kerb he is taking and try to figure out what he is doing differently and try to do the same tomorrow.

"I go through the onboard cameras from all the other drivers, especially the drivers who are doing a good job there and try to understand what they are doing better than me and also look at Lewis’ data and compare that to mine to see what he is doing differently and where he is doing better. Of course it’s also to see what I am doing better than the others and to make sure I stick with that."