Malaysia: Rosberg in the Qualifying Press Conference

By Phil Huff
June 14 2010

Following ihs front row qualifying position earlier today, Mercedes GP's Nico Rosberg sat in on the Qualifying Press Conference in Sepang. Here's what he had to say...

Nico, a first ever front row start in Formula One for you. You seemed to enjoy the conditions a little more in Q3 than your team-mate did this year.

No, I think generally it was very, very difficult in qualifying. Really up and down and in the end qualí three was my best run and I was very pleased. It felt good out there and I thought I got a good lap in and then for the second lap the tyres had already started to degrade, so I couldn’t improve. But I was a bit worried as I saw Mark in front on inters and I was pretty sure that that was the right tyre and I was just about to dive in the pits and then I thought I understood from him, from where he was going, that he was changing his mind, so I decided to stay out but thankfully it wasn’t the wrong decision to stay on full wets either, so the front row is fantastic.

Your best ever grid position on a circuit that you say is your favourite circuit. But maybe not in these conditions?

No, definitely not in these conditions. It was very difficult out there today and I just had to keep it on the road at times. I was very fortunate in Q1 to go through with a lap that was just a disaster but somehow managed to get it to the end. From then it was going well and I felt good in the wet. I got all my settings right with front wing and everything, so I got a really good lap in for Q3. I am really pleased for me, the whole team and even for Petronas as it is like a half-home grand prix for us which is great. In general good stuff and I think we can do really well from that position tomorrow.

What is the weather going to be like tomorrow? What would it be like racing in those conditions?

It is really difficult and even today in Q3 it was just too much water. We have to wait and see for tomorrow. I expect a really difficult race in general with red flags, this and that, but looking at it today I am quite confident that I can make it through to the end and get a really good result whatever comes. If it is dry, I think we can do well. If it is wet, we have a quick car, so it should be good.

How much are you allowed to made adjustments during a session like that, given that it was the first wet session you had driven? It’s only the front wing, isn’t it?

Yes, during the session you’re allowed to change the front wing, you’re allowed to do tyre pressures, those are the main things.

Your first ever front row and the first front row for Mercedes; does this give a special feeling to you?

Of course, there’s a special feeling to be on the front row with the Silver Arrow – that’s great and that’s where I was hoping to be, obviously, before the season, so it’s nice to have made that happen. As I say, I also think we can do a good job tomorrow because we have a decent car in the dry also. There are some people behind me who are definitely slower than us, so except for Sebastian, directly behind, there are some people who are slower, so I think we can really look forward to a good result tomorrow.

Sebastian was the only one of the top teams who went out immediately in Q1 and you waited quite a long time, like many others, which almost caught you out like the Ferraris and Hamilton. Were you getting nervous in the garage when you saw the others driving and you were being held back by the team?

I wasn’t getting nervous because there was no more rain for the rest of Q1 according to the forecast. That nearly caught us out, we were lucky to get through. I think also the main problem was with that forecast, that with these specific types of clouds it’s very difficult to see them coming sometimes and they just pop out, so that’s one of the difficulties I guess.