Rosberg calls on Mercedes to capitalise

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Following Friday practice for the Russian Grand Prix, Nico Rosberg says Mercedes needs to capitalise on another race weekend where Ferrari has hit trouble.

Rosberg was fastest in FP1 and then third quickest behind team-mate Lewis Hamilton and Ferrari's Sebastian Vettel in the second session, although the championship leader did not get a clear lap on supersoft tyres in FP2. However, Vettel completed just ten laps before stopping with an electronics problem and Rosberg is buoyed by the early signs in Sochi.

"It's been a good day today," Rosberg said. "The car is fast, we're enjoying the track here. It's a good track, quite a difficult track so we had to work hard to get the car right, but in the end we're pleased with how it went. The opportunity is there to win again so we need to try to make the most of it."

However, Rosberg is wary Mercedes has again been unable to see Vettel's true pace in race trim due to his reliability woes.

"My day was good because our car is fast, so I'm pleased to see that again. It is a very, very different track. The asphalt is strange here, just different to everywhere else. Smooth might be the right word. So it's not easy to get it right car-wise or driving-wise. It's been an interesting day but good. We got off to a good start.

"Race pace was looking good as well. But of course we didn't see what Vettel could have done. So we need to be cautious but in general I think it's been positive."

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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.