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F1 Abu Dhabi GP: Not possible to match Hamilton – Rosberg

Nico Rosberg has conceded he wasn't able to equal or beat Lewis Hamilton's pole position lap time at the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix despite finding his own maximum during qualifying.

The F1 world championship leader, who needs to finish on the podium to guarantee a maiden title, missed out on pole by 0.303s to team-mate Hamilton but was able to place his Mercedes on the front row of the grid for the season finale.

Despite having a small edge over Hamilton in the first sector of the Yas Marina Circuit Rosberg admitted he could not match his rival's one lap pace around the rest of the lap and has been left unsatisfied with second place on the grid.

"I've come here to try to be on pole and try to win the race so I am not ecstatic about today, Lewis did a great job and was a couple of tenths quicker," Rosberg said. "It just wasn't possible for me to do that time today even though I gave it everything. There are still opportunities tomorrow and I will go for the win.

"In general there are always nerves in qualifying but that is what is great about it, going to the edge, to the limit and pushing. I was feeling go out there everything was balance so I was quite pleased and as qualifying went on I felt better and better. I got a good lap in the end in Q3 but not good enough." 

Zdroj: crash.net