Nico Rosberg secured only his second pole position of 2015 in Japan on Saturday, and admitted it had been difficult to set up the car after the two free practice sessions on Friday were run in wet conditions.
The Mercedes AMG PETRONAS driver beat team-mate Lewis Hamilton by just 0.076s, with both drivers on second quick laps when the session was cut short by a heavy crash from Red Bull’s Daniil Kvyat, and admits he feels the team are in a much stronger position this weekend than they were a week ago in Singapore.
“It was difficult to set up the car here for the dry conditions, because we had the two wet sessions yesterday,” said Rosberg. “But when we were able to practise some high fuel and qualifying runs, today I got a really good feeling.
“I nailed my laps and I was already on another good quick lap when Dani hit the wall. Then the team informed me that he is fine so we were all very happy to hear that.
“I’m confident for tomorrow. Thanks to the team for this car, It seems that we are coming back stronger here than in Singapore.”
