Categories: F1 News, Reports and Race ResultsMercedes

Rosberg hails 'perfect car' after clinching pole

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Mercedes' Nico Rosberg was delighted to clinch pole position for the Japanese Grand Prix and prove that last week's slump in form for the team at Singapore had been a one-off.

"Very happy, great day today," he said. "Good comeback also for the team - it's fantastic after such a difficult weekend in Singapore to be back to our normal strength today, a strong performance today from the team.

"Great car, so very thankful for that. The team really turned things around and optimised things for this track.

"As for me, I pretty much nailed my laps so really pleased with the way that it went. Great position to be for tomorrow."

"At times today I had the perfect car for sure, and that's why it was a great pleasure to drive it. Suzuka is the ultimate track and to have a good car here is just awesome."

Despite having the perfect car, Rosberg's Q3 lap of 1:32.584s wasn't quite good enough to beat his 2014 pole-winning time of 1:32.506s.

"I'm sure the track was surely not as good, not much rubber down there, and beyond that I'm not sure what the reasons are," he said. "But as for everybody we didn't have the perfect preparation so there may be a few surprises tomorrow."

Despite winning pole last year, Rosberg lost out in the inclement conditions of the race to his team mate Lewis Hamilton, but he didn't think there would be a repeat of that this year even if showers do affect the Grand Prix on Sunday.

"I didn't struggle in the rain, I just struggled on the inter tyres. And on the inter tyres yesterday I was feeling great! So even if it rains, that's fine.

"Hopefully it'll be a dry race tomorrow, that'll help. That's going to be the big one. Beyond that, I'm really comfortable with the way that the car was handling this morning in the dry, had a good long run. Should be all good."

REPORT: Rosberg takes pole after huge Kvyat crash

AS IT HAPPENED: Japanese Grand Prix Qualifying

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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.