Nico Rosberg admits he is "very surprised" by Mercedes' large advantage over Ferrari in Russia.
Rosberg claimed a comfortable pole position at the Sochi Autodrom on Saturday, finishing seven tenths clear of Sebastian Vettel -- a gap his fellow German said was genuine. Ferrari introduced an engine upgrade this weekend in a bid to utilise Sochi's long straights and Rosberg thought the Italian team would have posed a bigger challenge.
"Yeah very surprised," Rosberg said. "It's really unique out there, the way the tyres work, it's absolutely at the highest grip. At the same time though, as soon as the car twitches you lose all grip, so it's a very, very fine line, it's unusual, so you can't generalise I think but we are surprised because here for sure we thought they would be closer today. They were quite far away. That's surprising to see and impressive to see as well, how our performance is here, it's strong."
Team boss Toto Wolff admits the Sochi Autodrom suits the overall Mercedes package better than most venues on the F1 calendar.
"The car has looked very strong since yesterday and it was confirmed in FP3. The car and tyre combination works really well on the track and we are able to switch them on in a good way. The whole engine and car combination rounded up makes this our strongest circuit so far this year. Seven tenths is what we saw in the other sessions before. You cannot take it for granted."