• Canadian Grand Prix

Hamilton the benchmark for Mercedes - Rosberg

Nico Rosberg was powerless to hold off Mark Webber and Fernando Alonso © Sutton Images

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• Race:
• Canadian Grand Prix

• Drivers:
• Nico Rosberg

• Teams:
• Mercedes

Nico Rosberg says he didn't have the pace to finish higher than fifth in the Canadian Grand Prix but that Lewis Hamilton's result was the benchmark for Mercedes.

Hamilton started from second place and held position until the final stint when Fernando Alonso overtook him. Rosberg, however, had fallen behind both Alonso and Mark Webber just before making an early second pit stop and he admitted he didn't have the pace to match his team-mate in the race.

"Today was not great; I just didn't have the speed really to do better than fifth place," Rosberg said. "So from that point of view it's damage limitation and fifth place is OK, good points. I think our reference point today as a team is where Lewis was - which was third - and that shows that we still definitely need to make further progress just in terms of how we manage the tyres and everything because on one lap I think we had the fastest car but still struggling a little bit in the race not being able to do better than third place."

Rosberg admitted Mercedes would need to work hard on its tyre issues by Silverstone if it wants to impress at the team's home race.

"It's our home grand prix, a lot of team members will be there cheering us on hopefully which is always nice and I'm going to try and put on a great show for everybody to get a good result there. Some work to do I think for us because with those high-speed corners it could be quite heavy on the tyres but I think we'll be OK."

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