Nico Rosberg admitted that he just wasn't good enough on the day to carry the fight for pole position to his Mercedes team mate Lewis Hamilton.
Rosberg had been within a tenth of a second of Hamilton in FP1 and FP3, but missed out on running in FP2 because of a water leak on his car. However when it came to the final round of qualifying on Saturday afternoon it seemed that Hamilton was able to get to another level that Rosberg simply wasn't able to find.
"It just wasn't the best day out there for me," he admitted. "Congrats to Lewis who did a good job here and that's it. But still, tomorrow is all to play for and definitely still pushing.
"There's a good opportunity in turn 3 to attack, so we'll see."
Rosberg dismissed suggestions that missing out on running in FP2 had any bearing on his preparations for qualifying and insisted that he's got everything he could out of the car on the day.
"They've given us an incredible car out there today," he said. "It was just a pleasure to drive that, especially through the high speed corners where it's like on rails. It just feels awesome.
"That's the most spectacular area for us racing drivers, these high speed corners, so that very special out there today."
The fact that the two Mercedes drivers will start tomorrow's race side-by-side on the grid gives rise to concerns that they might make contact again, just as they did in the final lap of last week's Austrian Grand Prix.
The pair have been read the 'riot act' by Mercedes management, and both Rosberg and Hamilton know what they need to do - and not do - on Sunday.
"We never want to collide and we never intend to collide. We'll be battling and continuing to avoid collisions," said Rosberg.
Asked whether he felt that the Mercedes rules of engagement were now clear to both drivers, Rosberg responded succinctly: "Very clear."
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