Rosberg set to compromise qualifying pace

The Williams driver will lose ten places on the grid after being hit by a penalty at the Canadian Grand Prix for crashing into the back of Lewis Hamilton's McLaren at the end of the pitlane.

Rosberg was pleased with his day's work in today's practice sessions, the German posting the 11th fastest time in the afternoon.

He reckons, however, that his qualifying efforts are likely to be focused on having a good strategy for the race rather than on trying to go as fast as possible.

"We made a lot of progress today which is satisfying," said Rosberg. "We made quite a few changes to the car over the course of this morning's session because I had some slight oversteer but, once we'd made those adjustments, things started to improve and we were fairly competitive in the afternoon.

"Performance-wise, we can be pretty happy with where we are at the moment. Obviously, my race strategy is a lot more important here than normal, so I might have to compromise my pace in tomorrow's qualifying to account for that."

Teammate Kazuki Nakajima endured a tough day after struggling with his car's set-up. The Japanese was 14th fastest.

"It was a bit of a difficult day for me," he said. "We struggled a little with the grip levels but we tried many different set-up options to solve the problem and it finally started to go our way towards the end of the sessions.

"I think track conditions will be better tomorrow so hopefully qualifying will go ok for us."