Mercedes unconcerned over Rosberg qualifying errors in first two GPs

Mercedes team principal Ross Brawn says there are no concerns about Nico Rosberg's qualifying performances this year - despite the German making errors on his quickest qualifying runs in Australia and Malaysia

With Mercedes having delivered a step forward in performance this year, Rosberg has been in contention for take pole position at the opening two events but lock ups on his Q3 runs hurt his chances.

Those errors have raised question marks about Rosberg's ability to deliver under pressure, but Brawn has insisted he is not worried about what has happened.

"To be fair it is a very small sample base," he said when asked about Rosberg's situation. "We have only scored one point in two races and if that is our average then we have some serious issues.

"It is far too early to say [about Rosberg]. There have been some differences in the way the car responds under braking, and they are the things that have caught him out. At the last race he had an issue with flat spotted tyres and I think he did the previous race - so it is a particular issue under braking that he is finding a little bit difficult.

"We are doing things to try and improve that for him. I don't think there is any issue with Nico and, when that gets smoothed out, we are going to see something special from him."

Brawn believes that Rosberg's ability to deliver something extra over a single lap could be a factor in what has happened too.

"He is good at squeezing out that last bit of performance, and maybe in doing that he is going a little bit over the edge," he said. "It is up to us to try and improve the car so he can do that."