Nico Rosberg revealed he believed he had grabbed pole position with his final qualifying lap only to be told that team-mate Lewis Hamilton had set an even better time on his final run in Bahrain on Saturday.
Rosberg’s set a time of 1m29.570s in Q3 during qualifying, but was denied the pole spot by just 0.077s in favour of his Mercedes AMG PETRONAS team-mate, but feels he still has a good chance of victory on Sunday at a track that offers good chances for overtaking, both on track and on strategy.
“My lap felt good and I was sure that I had got pole when I crossed the line – but then the guys told me that Lewis was just a bit quicker,” said Rosberg. “He did an incredible lap at the end, so a good job from him.
“The good news for me is that this is one of the tracks where pole position counts for the least. Strategy tomorrow will be important and maybe even quite messy, so there are still a lot of opportunities.
“You have a few more places to overtake here than at other tracks too, so I’m quite confident for tomorrow. Tyres are going to be a big issue. We have softer tyres here than last year and it will be interesting to see how long they last and when they will start graining. It should be an entertaining race, so I’m looking forward to it.”
