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Saturday, 5th April 2008

Williams ace hints at strong race pace.

by Chris Hayes

Nico Rosberg has disclosed that his fourth row grid slot is the best that Williams could have hoped for in qualifying in Sakhir, despite topping the timesheets in the morning practice session with a searing pace behind the wheel of his Williams FW30.

The young German – who has been impressively quick all weekend, coming within touching distance of the Ferraris on Friday and then going quickest of all in Saturday practice – lapped eighth-quickest in qualifying ahead of Sunday's Bahrain Grand Prix, just under a second slower than surprise pole-sitter Robert Kubica.

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Despite failing to convert his formidable practice pace into a position on one of the leading two rows of the grid, however, Rosberg is content with his starting slot and has hinted at a fuel strategy that may have masked his true potential in qualifying.

“I am happy because we are back where we expected to be at the moment, which is behind the top three teams, so eighth position is more-or-less the best we can do,” reflected the 22-year-old.

“We have a good race car, possibly stronger than our qualifying car, so I think we are in a good position for the race and strategy is also on-target. It's definitely all going in the right direction.”

Rosberg exploded onto the F1 scene at Bahrain a couple of years ago, when he led an awe-inspiring charge through the pack to seventh place, claiming the race's fastest lap in the process. The inaugural GP2 champion will be hoping to replicate similar success this time around, as he bids to put the crushing disappointment of a 14th-place finish in Malaysia behind him.

Kazuki Nakajima in the sister Williams – who had been practically matching Rosberg's practice times, underlining the pace of the FW30 – had a frustrating qualifying, just scraping into Q2 and eventually winding up 16th.

“It was not a great qualifying session for me today,” the Formula 1 rookie acknowledged. “I made it into Q2 which was ok, but I wasn't able to get the most out of the car or the tyres, which cost me quite a lot.

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