Nico Rosberg was delighted to take only his third pole position of the season after a tricky weekend with restricted running at the Sochi Autodrom this weekend.
Drivers had to contend with a partially wet track during FP1 following a diesel leakage from a support vehicle and subsequent clean-up, with FP2 then affected by rain, while FP3 on Saturday morning was then curtailed early due to Carlos Sainz Jr’s crash.
The Mercedes AMG PETRONAS driver admitted the team had to use some guesswork to set-up the car around the Russian Grand Prix circuit, but felt the lap he completed to take him to pole position was verging on perfection, with the German ending up 0.320s faster than team-mate Lewis Hamilton.
“It was a tricky session today as we were not able to practise a lot yesterday,” said Rosberg. “We had to guess what the right set up for this track will be. But we nailed it and had a nearly perfect lap in my first run in Q3.
“I’m quite pleased with that. I’m in the best possible position for tomorrow, which is great. I really hope for a clean race, it will be a great battle with Lewis.”
