Nico Rosberg has been left ruining a costly error on his final Q3 lap in Malaysian Grand Prix qualifying, but feels optimistic for the race.
The German driver suffered a messy first attempt in the final qualifying session and was fifth fastest after the opening runs.
He managed to recover to a front row grid position with his second lap, but lost time with a mistake into the final corner.
Rosberg felt he could have got much closer to his team-mate Lewis Hamilton’s pole position lap but remains optimistic about his chances for the race.
“Lewis’ lap was very quick so it was always going to be difficult,” he said. “I would have come close but unfortunately I had a mistake in the last corner.
“Something just wasn’t going right there in the last corner, I just couldn’t get the settings right, there was always going to be oversteer [a] moment into there.
“But anyway, second place, we’ll live with that now. As we know from this year, second place does not mean that victory is not possible tomorrow. We’ve seen that so many times. Still very optimistic for tomorrow.”
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