Mercedes driver Nico Rosberg has said that he was "quite pleased" with his sixth place for tomorrow's Brazilian Grand Prix, despite going slower in the final part of the session than he had managed in the Q2 session.
Rosberg will line up in sixth place for Sunday's Brazilian Grand Prix, starting the race ahead of the Ferrari of Felipe Massa.But the German had finished Q2 second overall with a strong early lap in that session, and admitted that he struggled to get his tyres up to temperature in Q3, which cost him a shot at a better lap.
"That was a good qualifying session today," he grinned afterwards, "We saved a set of option tyres for the race, and we qualified ahead of one of the Ferraris, which has always been my goal during the season.
"So I'm quite pleased to be starting from sixth place tomorrow."
But he added: "I was maybe a little too slow on my out lap in Q3 so my tyres didn't work perfectly on my fast lap, and that's why I wasn't as quick as in Q2.
"I will push to gain a good result tomorrow for the team who have done a great job over the whole season."
Team mate Michael Schumacher will start the race from 10th place, after declining to set a lap in the final part of the qualifying session.
Afterwards, Schumacher suggested that the decision had been a tactical one, based on the range of possible track conditions for the race tomorrow.
"The forecast says there is a high probability for rain during the race. With this in mind, we have kept all of our options open for tomorrow and we had a strategic approach to qualifying today," he explained.
"Still we need to find out why we weren't able to match our times from this morning [in Q1 and Q2]. There will be a lot of data checking now, so that tomorrow it will be very different and we can attack for some points."
Team boss Ross Brawn added: "Nico's run in Q2 was very impressive, and that performance potential bodes well for the race.
"Michael took a measured approach to Q3, in order to save a new set of tyres, and he is in a good position strategically. We know how good he has been on the first lap this year, so we're looking forward to finding out what will be possible in the race."
He added: "Rain is still forecast for tomorrow but the same was true of today, so we are working with a measure of uncertainty."
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