Rosberg delighted with season best showing

The Williams driver will start from a season-best fifth place after confirming his strong pace following a promising practice yesterday.

"I am especially happy with my position in qualifying because it was very difficult, not just because the track has changed a lot from yesterday and even from this morning, but also because the surface was breaking up in various locations," said the German.

"The grip had dropped away, so the aim today was not to make a mistake as it would be heavily punished by simply going 5 or 10cm off line.

"Anyway, I managed to keep everything completely under control and avoid getting offline, and the reward was fifth, which is a great place to start tomorrow."

Teammate Kazuki Nakajima had to settle for 12th position, missing the final cut.

The Japanese, however, is hopeful of making progress tomorrow if he manages to benefit from what is usually is an eventful race.

"It was a bit of a shame today because I missed Q3 by a very small amount and I really had the feeling that I could do it here, but it got harder to set good times as qualifying progressed," he said.

"But I think it will be an eventful race tomorrow, possibly with safety car periods, so I plan to keep a level head like in Monaco and if that happens, I will have a good chance to score some points"