Mercedes aware race may not be easy despite Rosberg's pole position

Although Mercedes has taken a big step forward in performance this year, with its innovative 'double DRS' system playing a role in its impressive qualifying race, it has fallen back in races after strong Saturday performances, and has only scored one point in 2012.

At Shanghai on Saturday, Nico Rosberg took a dominant pole position with a half-second cushion over the field. Team-mate Michael Schumacher was third fastest, but moves up to second on the grid thanks to Lewis Hamilton's penalty for a gearbox change.

"It was a fantastic achievement, but in the back of our mind we've got to put a race together tomorrow," Brawn told the BBC.

Brawn said Rosberg deserved huge credit for his performance and the margin of superiority. The German had been outqualified by Schumacher at 2012's first two races after holding the edge in single-lap pace for most of their time as team-mates so far.

"It was quite an exceptional lap by Nico," said Brawn. "He hasn't had a great first couple of races in that respect, and today we saw what he can do. The middle sector he did was just incredible."

The team boss hinted that both Mercedes could have gone faster still.

"We backed off once we saw that we weren't really under any threat because Lewis has got a penalty," Brawn said. "We wanted to try and save a set of tyres."