Nico Rosberg says he struggled with his race pace in 2013 Bahrain GP – Formula 1 news
Mercedes driver Nico Rosberg has said that he struggled a lot with his race pace in the 2013 Bahrain Grand Prix because they focussed too much on the qualifying.
Rosberg performed exceptionally well in the qualifying at the Bahrain International Circuit in Sakhir and successfully secured the pole position for the race ahead of Sebastian Vettel of Red Bull Racing. However, he failed to match the pace of his rivals
in the race and could only score 2 points with his 9th place finish. Furthermore, he stood ahead of Jenson Button of McLaren and behind Fernando Alonso of Ferrari.
The German driver said that they have focussed too much on the qualifying due to which they struggled during the race. In addition, he stated that he was using his rear tyres due to which hindered his performance on the race day. He also said that although
they have a very competent car, but they have to improve their race pace in order to attain better results in the forthcoming races.
“It was a tough day in the office, and as nice as it was to start on pole that is not the way to do it,” Rosberg said. “We focused on qualifying and not enough on race. We were really struggling and I felt it straight away from the beginning onwards, it
was not nice.”
“It's just using the rear tyres too much, that's what I'm doing. I think the basis of the car is okay we just need to change performance from qualifying to race and I think we're there,” he said.
It is to be noted that the 27-year-old has retired in two out of four grands prix and has only been able to score 14 points. Moreover, he is presently standing at 9th place in the drivers’ championship. Additionally, he is ahead of Button and
behind Paul di Resta of Force India.
Besides, he expressed a little disappointment over his results in the first four races of the season as he has not been able to score competitive points with consistency.
“I was going backwards and that realisation is not nice,” he added.
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