Rosberg: Smaller margins amid Ferrari/Red Bull pressure

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Nico Rosberg feels he and Lewis Hamilton have less margin for error amid growing pressure from Ferrari and Red Bull.

Hamilton won the Canadian Grand Prix on Sunday but slight contact between the two at Turn 1 saw Rosberg relegated to ninth place on the opening lap. Fighting back, Rosberg could only recover as high as fifth - hampered also by a puncture - and ahead of the Grand Prix of Europe he is aware Ferrari and Red Bull are in position to take advantage of any difficulties.

"Canada unfortunately didn't work out as planned," Rosberg said. "But that's how things go when you're pushing the limits and I'm not going to change my approach or start backing down. I'm in this Championship battle to win it - not to settle for second best.

"Now we head to Baku, which is going to be a massive challenge. It's a completely new track and a street circuit too, which makes it even more difficult. I've done some work in the simulator, of course, to get a feel for what to expect and to learn the layout.

"Ferrari and Red Bull are very close to our pace now, so any tiny difference we can find this weekend could make the difference. I'm excited to get out there, get to know the track and a new city and hopefully get myself back to the top after a tough few races."

Rosberg's championship lead now stands at just nine points over team-mate Hamilton following back-to-back victories for the defending champion, with Sebastian Vettel 38 points adrift in third place.

Technical analysis - Canada

Scene at the Canadian Grand Prix

Canadian Grand Prix - Quotes of the week

Breakfast with ... David Hobbs

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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.