• Mercedes

Rosberg: Not fair to say Merc's advantage has improved

Nico Rosberg says it would be unfair to say Mercedes has increased its 2014 advantage after seeing the race pace of Ferrari's Kimi Raikkonen in Australia.

Lewis Hamilton led Rosberg home during a dominant one-two in Melbourne, with Sebastian Vettel a massive 34.5 seconds down in third. The immediate fears after the race were that Mercedes could dominate again this year as it did in 2014 but Rosberg says the team is keeping a wary eye on Ferrari after Raikkonen's middle stint at the season opener.

"I don't think it's right to say that," Rosberg replied when asked if he thought Mercedes was even further in front this year than it was in 2014. "Of course qualifying pace was very strong, yes, but more important is the race pace. Especially from Kimi we saw an extremely strong stint. It's not really fair to say that, I would say. Ferrari especially have closed the gap and are closer than our nearest rival was last year."

When it was put to him the gap could be closer this weekend's Malaysian Grand Prix, Rosberg simply said: "It's very difficult to say, it's early days."

Rosberg has finished second to Hamilton is seven of the last eight races and he is eying a clever strategy call to turn the tables on his Mercedes team-mate.

"Qualifying is definitely important in this internal battle, especially since we have the same car. But it's not everything because we have seen in the past that even in races, by playing around with the tyre order and things like that; it is still possible to overtake. This weekend there might be a bit more leeway in the strategy to launch an attack."

Nate is assistant editor of ESPNF1

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