For much of this season there has been talk that Ferrari are closing th gap to Mercedes, but after qualifying on pole with ease for the Russian Grand Prix Nico Rosberg has admitted that the Maranello outfit are not even close.
Speaking to media after scoring his 21st career pole start, Rosberg said, "Here it looks like they are not very close. We've been saying all this time over the last few weeks that they are very close, very close, maybe we need to stop saying that for now because this weekend is looking very, very strong from our side. We look to have opened the gap."
Rosberg only needed his first lap to claim the top spot start for the race, but lamented the fact that he over shot his braking point on his second flying lap.
"The first lap was good," explained Rosberg. "But I had a bit more fuel so the second one would have been the quicker one. But I was very confident that the first one was good enough for pole as I saw the gaps in Q2. It was feeling awesome out there so I went for an all or nothing lap and it didn't work out unfortunately."
Nevertheless he parked his Mercedes in the pit garage and was out of his car with a couple of minutes still to run in Q3, with his rivals pounding the tarmac and chasing his time but to no avail, "It was a qualifying that was quite exceptional for me. Feeling wise the car came together, the balance, it was really good."
While his side of the garage has been devoid of bad luck so far this season, his teammate Lewis Hamilton alongside is having reliability issues which this time resulted in him not turning a lap in Q3.
But Rosberg is not fazed, "I don't really think I need to maximise now because I have confidence in the team to sort out the issues that we are having at the moment. I don't think about such problems, I just try to make the most of it and focus on the things that I can influence."
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