• Spanish Grand Prix - Qualifying

Rosberg 'cautious' about race after taking pole

Nico Rosberg took pole at the Circuit de Catalunya ahead of Lewis Hamilton © Sutton Images

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• Report:
• Rosberg leads Mercedes lock-out at Barcelona
  

• Race:
• Spanish Grand Prix

• Drivers:
• Nico Rosberg

• Teams:
• Mercedes

Nico Rosberg has warned against expecting too much from Mercedes at the Spanish Grand Prix despite locking out the front row with team-mate Lewis Hamilton in qualifying.

Rosberg will start from pole for the second race in a row but is "cautious" about his chances on Sunday after struggling with rear tyre degradation in recent races. At the last race in Bahrain he dropped from pole to ninth after making four pit stops and he said avoiding a repeat has been the the main focus for the team.

"Everything has just worked very well this weekend and we've optimised everything," he said. "Of course we've been thinking about the race pace a lot since Bahrain and we were surprised to still be that quick today, but it all went perfectly in qualifying and we had a really good lap in the end. It's always a good motivation boost for the team to get a front row, but we have to be a bit cautious because of what we saw in Bahrain. For sure it's nice but to be enjoyed with caution."

Asked what Mercedes had been doing since Bahrain to ease the tyre issues, Rosberg said: "Everybody has been working really hard back at the factory to understand even better our problems. It's really an ongoing process now to get the most out of these tyres because it's really complex for the drivers, the engineers and everybody.

"We were a bit behind on that in Bahrain, and I'm sure we've caught up now, but then you come here and there are different issues again. Here it's more the graining of the tyres, so here we are trying to catch up again. I'm sure we have improved things and this morning [in practice] it was looking a little bit better and I'm a little bit more confident for tomorrow, but still the race is going to be a whole different thing because of the tyres."

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