- Abu Dhabi Grand Prix - Mercedes
Rosberg pleased with 'massive' progression
Nico Rosberg described the progression he has made with car set-up throughout the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix weekend as "massive".
Although the Red Bull pair of Mark Webber and Sebastian Vettel again locked out the front row, Rosberg was much closer than he expected in qualifying having previously said on Friday that Red Bull was "unbeatable". He said that getting the car set-up right had been tough with both FP1 and FP3 being unrepresentative of qualifying and race conditions.
"I progressed really well through the weekend," Rosberg said. "Set-up progression was massive, it changed so much from the beginning to the end and it's just very difficult because the first session of each day is so hot that you can't really learn much and you just have to take an estimated guess where to go for the evening sessions with the set up and so that made it very, very difficult. And in the end… yeah, got there in the end in qualifying. Felt comfortable and there you are. P3. It's good."
Rosberg also said that the lack of pace for Ferrari made it an even better result for Mercedes in the constructors' championship.
"In general I'm pleased with the result for sure: third place, best of the rest, which is our target for the weekend. It was nice to annoy Red Bull a little bit from time to time there in qualifying but in the end they were just too quick again. But anyway, third place is good, I'm pleased with that, and again just looking at the constructors'.That's what counts for us, third and fourth, blocking out the second row of the grid. Lotus for sure are some way back but especially Ferrari, who are our direct competition, they're well back, so that's a very good result for us today in qualifying."
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