Rosberg: “I took a risk but it went badly”

After a braking error on his final qualifying run at the Monaco GP, Nico Rosberg admitted he felt the need to attack hard to have a chance of beating his Mercedes teammate Lewis Hamilton for pole. Rosberg qualified 3 tenths behind the world champion but ruined his second run with a mistake at St.Devote. With Ferrari trailing by another 4 tenths, qualifying turned into a fight between the Mercedes duo.

“It was probably the opposite of what happened to Lewis, I had a good pace at the start of qualifying, as I didn't have all weekend, so the prospects were good, but in the end perhaps I risked too much. For sure I had to try because I knew Lewis would be fast but I had to try and it didn't work, that's all."

“The fight was close and I was optimistic that I could improve my time. I changed my balance because in the first run I had too much understeer so I increased the front wing by a good step. I was optimistic that I would succeed but it went badly."