Mercedes driver Nico Rosberg says he is wary of Ferrari after the great pace shown by the Italian team.
Rosberg set the fastest time in first practice but was second quickest, behind Ferrari’s Sebastian Vettel in the second session. Kimi Raikkonen looked strong on heavy fuel leaving Rosberg aware of the threat Mercedes have this weekend.
Both Mercedes were beaten in qualifying by the Williams duo of Massa and Bottas in 2014 due to their inability to extract the maximum performance from the option tyre – it appears Mercedes are suffering a similar issue in 2014.
“In general it was a decent practice day for me. It´s a challenge to nail the setup for this track – but I felt comfortable in the car. The red cars are very strong here. They had very impressive pace – on higher fuel levels as well as low.
They are our closest rivals, I think, but on this short track the lap times are quicker and all the cars are closer together. We will definitely need to work hard to find a few tenths for tomorrow.”
Executive director (Technical) of Mercedes, Paddy Lowe also expects the gap between Mercedes and Ferrari to be close.
”Performance between the teams looks very close on both low and high fuel, so it looks like being an interesting and entertaining weekend ahead.”
Image Courtesy of Mercedes AMG F1 Team
