- Bahrain Grand Prix - Qualifying
Practice pace spurred me on - Rosberg
Nico Rosberg admits he had to learn quickly from his slower pace in practice to snatch pole from Lewis Hamilton in Bahrain.
Rosberg had been thoroughly outperformed by Hamilton in each practice session but made it count when it mattered, going over two seconds faster than his team-mate to record his first pole of the season.
"I just worked well through the weekend," Rosberg said."Finding my way and progressing, getting round some issues and understanding what set-up to go for and things like that."
Two of the three practice sessions were run in hot conditions usually similar to those on race day, but the adjusted time for this year's race meant qualifying was in cooler conditions under the lights. Rosberg believes this made it even more difficult to make the necessary adjustments he needed to.
"The challenge this weekend was that the free practice sessions were in such hot conditions, like the one before qualifying. It's very difficult and you have to guess sort of about what the set-up is going to be like and how the cars will be in the colder conditions.
Pole continues a fine tradition Rosberg has in Sakhir, and he believes that played into his hands.
"I always have very good memories of this track - winning the GP2 championship here and also my first race in F1. I've always liked it, I enjoy coming here and again it suited me."
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