Nico Rosberg has warned that even the slightest error will come with a heavy price in today's Canadian Grand Prix, after defying the difficult conditions in qualifying to place his Williams-
Toyota fifth on the starting grid.
The result marked the latest in a long line of impressive performances from the young German, though just over a tenth of a second more and he would have been third. Nevertheless, from row three of the grid he is confident of adding to the eight points that he has notched up so far this season.
I am especially happy with my position in qualifying because it was very difficult, the 22-year-old stated afterwards, not just because the track had changed a lot from Friday and even from [Saturday] morning, but also because the surface was breaking up in various locations.
The grip had dropped away, so the aim was not to make a mistake as it would be heavily punished by simply going five or ten centimetres off-line. Anyway, I managed to keep everything completely under control and avoid getting off-line, and the reward was fifth, which is a great place to start.
Rookie team-mate
Kazuki Nakajima was also looking in good shape to secure his first top ten grid slot of the campaign, only to miss out on getting through to the final Q3 shoot-out by a scant four hundredths of a second. That notwithstanding, twelfth place matched the 23-year-old Japanese star's best qualifying result of a solid debut season one in which he has already racked up an impressive seven points from the opening six grands prix.
It was a bit of a shame because I missed Q3 by a very small amount, he admitted. I really had the feeling that I could do it here, but it got harder to set good times as qualifying progressed.
I think it will be an eventful race, though, possibly with safety car periods, so I plan to keep a level head like in Monaco. If that happens, I will have a good chance to score some points.
