Nico Rosberg says he underestimated how quick Sebastian Vettel would be in qualifying as he was beaten to second place by the Ferrari in Bahrain.
Lewis Hamilton’s lap in Q2 marked him out as the clear favourite for pole position as he was comfortably clear of the rest of the field, and he duly went on to secure his fourth pole in a row. Rosberg says he had taken it easy in the second part of qualifying in order to look after the tyres he will start the race on, but then had found he couldn't get back to his best in Q3.
“Strategy-wise I got it wrong, because I was thinking too much about the race and I underestimated Sebastian's speed, and also how much it would cost me by taking it easier in quali two on the race-set of tyres,” Rosberg said.
"I just lacked rhythm as a result, I didn't get into a rhythm, and I just had one shot at it in the end with a new set - starting Q3 with a used set - so that's where I went wrong today.
"I'm disappointed because Sebastian beat me. If I was second then it still would have been damage limitation, but being third is not really not ideal."
And Rosberg admits he has to shoulder the blame for not getting the most out of his Q3 lap.
"I didn't expect to go on used [soft tyres] in the first part of Q3. I thought we'd go to new tyres. I also didn't expect the used tyre to be so slow. It was really, really poor.
"I expected it to be good, especially as I took it easy on that tyre in Q1, but it was really poor, which meant I only had a shot at the end, and that was just poor management, really poor management ... [From] my side, all together. We always do it together, but I'm definitely largely responsible for that."
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