Rosberg unfazed by missing 'unimportant' pole

For the second time this year, Nico Rosberg conceded pole position once again to team mate Lewis Hamilton.

But by his own admission, the German gave it his all, acknowledging that the man on the other side of the Mercedes garage had simply been faster.

"I was 100 percent sure that I had pole with that lap at the end, but Lewis jus managed to beat it by a blink of the eye, so that was disappointing" Rosberg admitted.

"But if there is one track where pole position isn't as important, it's here in Bahrain. So much can happen tomorrow, we've always seen  big battles and overtaking is possible here.

"So I'm looking forward to a really interesting race with a lot of opportunities."

The winner of the season-opener Australian GP wouldn't commit to any predictions with regard to strategy on how to beat his team mate or Ferrari, hoping that Mercedes will attempt as usual to put the best possible plan in play.

"We'll do the best possible strategy and then it will be an internal battle, with me against Lewis, that's what we're planning for.

"Of course we do think Ferrari will be a big threat so we need to keep an eye on them. But for now it's just the two of us."

Given the blistering starts enjoyed by both Ferrari drivers in Melbourne, Rosberg admitted that Mercedes' relative weakness on that front had hopefully been addressed.

"We've been working hard on our starts because they were better in Australia, we have improved, it's not perfect yet, and it's difficult to make big steps in such a short amount of time.

"But we're confident that we'll be okay. If they're ahead, we'll hunt them down!"

AS IT HAPPENED: Bahrain Grand Prix qualifying

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