Nico Rosberg is confident that he can take the fight to the two Ferraris ahead in the Italian Grand Prix, but is less confident that he can challenge his team-mate Lewis Hamilton.
Following a difficult day in which he had to replace his upgraded power unit with an old engine prior to qualifying due to technical problems, and then qualified in fourth place behind the Ferrari pair while Hamilton took a comfortable pole, when asked who he could fight in the race he said: “Ferrari for sure; Lewis – more difficult”.
As for why he was confident of getting with the Ferraris on Sunday Rosberg said: “They were seven hundredths away in qualifying and I think that in the race they will not have the same [engine] modes as they had in qualifying, so I think I definitely have a chance.”
Rosberg nevertheless outlined that using the older engine will have a negative impact on his race as it did his qualifying.
“It’s done six races, that’s a lot of mileage and engines degrade. That definitely has compromised our weekend and will compromise our race as well,” he noted.
“It’s obvious from the data you can see that my [qualifying] laps were good, I just lost a lot of time on the straights.
“I was quite happy with that lap actually, it was a good lap.”
