Rosberg says new surface hurt Williams

The German could only manage 16th on the grid today - despite having finished on the podium in Australia just six days earlier.

Rosberg admitted that the result had come as a shock.

"Can't believe how it went today," he said. "I came here from a podium finish a few days ago and now I qualify 16th, although I felt my last flying lap was pretty good.

"Our car doesn't seem to like the new asphalt they laid on this track at all. It's just too smooth and it doesn't make our tyres work properly, so I am just sliding everywhere.

"It will be tough tomorrow starting from this position, but our car should be better in racing conditions. And maybe some rain might help us."

Although Rosberg lost some track time to a hydraulic issue in morning practice, Williams' technical director Sam Michael did not believe this was a factor.

"This morning we had a bad run on Nico's car in practice with a hydraulic leak which cost us some set-up time, but even so it would be difficult to see how we could have made it into the top ten and our qualifying performance needs improvement," he said.

Rosberg's teammate Kazuki Nakajima was only 18th fastest and will start at the back after receiving a ten-place grid penalty for hitting Robert Kubica's BMW in Melbourne.

"It was a difficult qualifying and because it was tight on lap times, when I made one mistake, it stopped me progressing into Q2," he said. "I have a grid penalty for tomorrow in any case, so I want to have a consistent race and make sure I finish."