Q & A with Nico Rosberg

Nico Rosberg: In general, yes it has been a positive day. We've definitely gone better than I thought, which is a really nice thing. How good remains to be seen, but definitely we are in a better position which is nice.

Q. It looked quite bumpy out there?

NR: To be honest, into Turn 9 I brake and I go without being able to see for a while because it is so bumpy, then the car settles down and I can see again. Then I turn into the apex. That is how bumpy it is, really. You just don't see the car any more.

Q. Do you see this race as the omen for the first half of the season?

NR: Well I see it as an omen that maybe it can be a positive start for us. That would be great.

Q. You have said before the weekend that your target is to get within the points. So today must have been quite a surprise?

NR: A little bit, yeah definitely. We've done very well today but that [points] target still remains because it is not clear how much fuel other people were running, and all the rest of it - although saying that we were not empty either. That is a good thing. Still we have some reserve, but it will still be interesting tomorrow. But my hopes are higher than before that we can definitely have a consistent points scoring.

Q. Do you have any reason to believe that this is not sustainable throughout the weekend? Or is this your real race pace?

NR: No, not yet unfortunately. We must wait for tomorrow, but it was still great for the whole team to finish first twice. It is still nice, and we haven't done anything different from what we normally do. So we have done a nice step forward. How much I really cannot say, but I think we are going to be able to enjoy ourselves for the first few races.

Q. Driving in the evening - does the sunset disturb you?

NR: It actually makes it very difficult, yes, because the sun is very low and many places you cannot see where the track is because of the sun coming down. So it makes it very challenging, and the worst corner was Turn 3 where someone went off because he just ran off the road. That was one of the reasons for that. It is not easy.

Q. The session as it ended didn't seem to be getting much quicker. How is that going to play into qualifying?

NR: I don't think that matters, it is the same for everybody. It is just important to practice that a bit tomorrow, to set the car up for qualifying but also to consider the racing because especially with the soft tyres, it is nowhere. It falls apart, it is unbelievable and I've never experienced anything like that. It will definitely make the racing very interesting because you lose so much time.

Q. So are you feeling really confident about qualifying?

NR: No, not really confident. For myself I am confident, I feel I will do a good job, but what position we are in we still need to wait and see because you don't know what other people were running today. But I am definitely pleased with today and I think we have done very well.