Nico Rosberg is confident his decision to qualify on hard tyres for the Italian Grand Prix will pay dividends during Sunday's race.
Rosberg saved two sets of fresh soft tyres for the race by taking part in Q3 on hard tyres, which he will now have to start the race on. The reduced grip in qualifying meant he could only manage ninth on the grid, behind team-mate Michael Schumacher, but he reckons the extra set of fresh soft tyres will be worth the sacrifice.
"I'm happy with today's qualifying and the compromise that we made to be strong in the race tomorrow," he said. "The performance in Q2 shows that the car is working well here, and we saved two sets of options which is good. I'm the only driver who took part in Q3 who will be starting on the hard tyre, so it will be interesting and should help me a lot at the start of the race. I think it will be a really good race tomorrow."
Mercedes motorsport director Norbert Haug is also optimistic about the team's chances after Schumacher qualified one place ahead of Rosberg in eighth.
"Our target since Friday has been to get our preparations right for the race," he said. "We knew this could cost us one or two positions on the grid, but we hope that our strategy will pay off in the race tomorrow. Both Nico and Michael will have a number of fresh tyres for the race which should help us too. But of course we are realistic in our targets and a result similar to Spa a fortnight ago is what we can achieve in a best-case scenario."
© ESPN EMEA Ltd.
Feeds: ESPNF1 Staff - Feedback
No comments:
Post a Comment