Rosberg: It’s not pole, but it will do

Despite not securing pole position in Mexico for consecutive years, Championship leader Nico Rosberg was pleased he was able to jump up to P2 on his last flying lap in Q3.

Struggling to keep up with his team-mate Lewis Hamilton all weekend, the German pulled a brilliant lap out the bag to secure a front row start at the Mexican Grand Prix on Sunday, where he will try and maintain his lead on the Drivers’ Championship table.

Receiving praise for his final lap of the day, Rosberg was quite hard on himself given the circumstances, praising Hamilton for his pace in the qualifiers.

“Brilliant is two and a half tenths from Lewis, so Lewis’ lap was brilliant, not so much mine,” he admitted.

“I put it together when it counted in the end so I’m relatively pleased with that to definitely make sure that I’m on the front row.

“It’s not pole position of course but still that gives me a great chance for tomorrow anyway.”

Rosberg also added that he knows he took longer to adapt to the conditions compared to his Silver Arrow team-mate, but revealed he is feeling much more confident going into tomorrow’s race.

“It just took a bit longer this weekend to find the way, just generally with tyre temperatures with it being on the cold side all weekend,” he explained.

“So it’s a bit nervous out there and just to find the way with that took a bit longer but I got there in the end so that’s OK.”