Categories: F1 News, Reports and Race ResultsMercedes

Rosberg confident of Mercedes pole

Nico Rosberg says he expects Mercedes to be on pole position for the Chinese Grand Prix but is wary of another Ferrari challenge in the race.

The two Mercedes cars were over a second clear of the rest of the field in the opening Friday practice session but saw Kimi Raikkonen get within half a second on the soft tyre runs before Ferrari showed strong race pace. Rosberg believes Mercedes has enough pace in hand to lock out the front row on Saturday but is less confident about the race having been beaten in Malaysia.

"It's looking good, of course,” Rosberg said. “I mean, we have an amazing car, now we need to have a look at exactly where we are. I think on one lap we will be quickest and then race pace we need to review now if we're looking OK or not."

Rosberg had a close fight with Raikkonen on track during FP2, looking to pass the Ferrari on the inside of the opening corner but seeing the door closed. While not happy about such a close call in practice, Rosberg says he expects more of the same in the race.

"That was definitely quite a tight one, he didn't leave much space in Turn 2! But OK, fair play, and then I got him in the next couple of corners or whatever. But that's good, it's good racing and I think on Sunday we might see some similar action."

By Chris Medland in Shanghai

Click here for Friday's gallery from the Chinese Grand Prix

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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.