At the end of a competitive opening day of free practice for the Singapore Grand Prix, Nico Rosberg says he expects a three-way fight between Mercedes, Red Bull, and Ferrari at Marina Bay Circuit.
The German set the pace in FP1, but had to settle for P7 in the late evening session where the defending champions came under pressure from several rivals. Team-mate Lewis Hamilton could only log the fourth fastest time behind the leading trio of Daniil Kvyat, Kimi Raikkonen, and Daniel Ricciardo, while Force India’s Sergio Perez beat Rosberg to sixth.
Asked whether Mercedes had suffered a bad Friday or the others had caught up, the championship runner-up replied: “I think it’s a bit of both, we didn’t do a good job today and the others have been pretty quick today. So it’s both coming together.”
“I went the wrong way [with the setup], but I learned a lot and we will be OK to get it right for tomorrow.
“It looks like it’s going to be Ferrari, Red Bull and us in a battle.”
Perhaps more worrying for Mercedes is the RB11 looking quite strong in terms of tyre degradation on high-fuel runs. Rosberg admits this is an area where he and his team must improve ahead of Sunday’s grand prix.
“Tyre wear is quite high so it’s difficult to do a two-stop. That’s going to be the key to the race so that’s what we need to work on tonight as well.”
AS IT HAPPENED: Singapore Grand Prix FP2
2016 F1 driver line-ups so far
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