Nico Rosberg took another front row grid slot but ended the Hungarian Grand Prix qualifying session more than half a second slower than his Mercedes AMG PETRONAS team-mate Lewis Hamilton.
The German driver revealed that he was struggling throughout the session with the set-up of his car, which meant he was not able to match the pace of his team-mate after being within a tenth of a second during final practice on Saturday morning.
“Congrats to Lewis first of all on a great pole lap,” said Rosberg. “Unfortunately for me, something went wrong in qualifying which I can’t quite explain at the moment.
“In P3 I sorted out the problems from Friday and had a great feeling in the car. But then, as early as the first lap in Q1, I had to feed back to the pits that I had heavy understeer from the car.
“I tried to change some of the electronic set-up but it didn’t really work out.”
Despite his disappointment at not being able to get onto terms with Hamilton, Rosberg feels the set-up on his car may be better for him during the race, and hopes to attack his team-mate for the race victory.
“The positive could be that this set-up might help me a bit more in the race, as understeering could keep the rear tyres more alive, so we will see,” said Rosberg.
“Even if I’m not happy about my performance today, there is still a lot to play for tomorrow. I need a good start – but there will be some other chances later in the race so I will go for it!”
