Rosberg wary of rivals hiding pace

Nico Rosberg is wary Mercedes has yet to see the true pace of its rivals after Friday practice for the Canadian Grand Prix.

While Lewis Hamilton set the pace in both practice sessions on Friday, Sebastian Vettel was second fastest in FP2, a quarter of a second adrift. The two Red Bull drivers were a second off the pace in the same session but with Daniel Ricciardo admitting the upgraded Renault power unit had not been running at full performance Rosberg is keen to see Red Bull's hand.

"The long run is looking good, our car is looking good but Ferrari is looking close," Rosberg said. "It is always so difficult on Friday you never know what fuel levels they are running, how much engine power they are using. At Red Bull they had their engine turned down completely which didn’t show anything so let’s see."

Rosberg himself was half a second slower than team-mate Hamilton but took confidence from his race pace.

"Generally I feel good in the car. But getting the tyres working is not so straightforward here, so that needs some further analysis tonight. I lost most of my time in the first sector - possibly because of tyre temperatures.

"So, that part of the lap is the main area to work on and find some improvement for qualifying. The long runs have looked good so far, though."

FP2 REPORT: Hamilton leads Vettel by 0.25s