• Brazilian Grand Prix - Qualifying

Tyre temperatures cost Rosberg in Q3

Nico Rosberg was half a second quicker in Q2 than in Q3 © Getty Images

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• Report:
• Vettel takes record-breaking pole in Brazil
  

• Race:
• Brazilian Grand Prix

• Championship:
• FIA Formula One World Championship

• Drivers:
• Nico Rosberg
• |
• Michael Schumacher

• Teams:
• Mercedes

Nico Rosberg said he was unable to match his time from the second part of qualifying at Interlagos because he didn't get his tyres up to temperature in Q3.

Rosberg surprised many by setting a time of 1:12.569 during Q2, putting him second just 0.1s slower than pace setter Sebastian Vettel. That same time in the final session would have put him fifth on the grid and just 0.089s slower than Lewis Hamilton in fourth, but Rosberg was half a second slower than his earlier effort as he qualified sixth. He said that the difference was down to his inability to bring the tyres in on his out lap, but that he was still pleased to qualify ahead of Felipe Massa.

"That was a good qualifying session today," Rosberg said. "We saved a set of option tyres for the race, and we qualified ahead of one of the Ferraris which has always been my goal during the season. So I'm quite pleased to be starting from sixth place tomorrow. I was maybe a little too slow on my out lap in Q3 so my tyres didn't work perfectly on my fast lap, and that's why I wasn't as quick as in Q2. I will push to gain a good result tomorrow for the team who have done a great job over the whole season."

With rain forecast for the race, Michael Schumacher concentrated on keeping his options open for any eventuality.

"The forecast says there is a high probability for rain during the race," Schumacher said. "With this in mind, we have kept all of our options open for tomorrow and we had a strategic approach to qualifying today. Still we need to find out why we weren't able to match our times from this morning. There will be a lot of data checking now, so that tomorrow it will be very different and we can attack for some points."

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