Nico Rosberg says Mercedes can no longer claim they are under pressure from Ferrari after dominating the Russian Grand Prix weekend so far.
The Anglo-German team have claimed that Ferrari are "very close" to overhauling them after a closely fought battle in Australia, which saw the Scuderia lead the race before a red flag and poor strategic decisions handed victory to Rosberg.
However in the subsequent races, Ferrari haven't been able to challenge the Mercedes of Rosberg and this weekend in Russia they have failed to get to within half a second of Mercedes during practice or qualifying, with Rosberg eventually finishing seven-tenths up on Sebastian Vettel in Q3.
"Here it looks like they are not very close," Rosberg told Sky Sports F1 on Saturday.
"We've been saying all this time over the last few weeks that they are very close, very close, maybe we need to stop saying that for now because this weekend is looking very, very strong from our side. We look to have opened the gap."
Meanwhile Rosberg hailed his pole position lap "exceptional" after breaking the Sochi lap record by almost two seconds.
"It was a qualifying that was quite exceptional for me. Feeling wise the car came together, the balance, it was really good."
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