Nico Rosberg admitted Lewis Hamilton was simply quicker than him during qualifying for the Spanish Grand Prix after he was deprived of his third pole position in a row.
Energy recovery problems for Hamilton at the previous two grands prix prevented him from challenging for pole position in China and Russia, leaving Rosberg with easy runs to victory. But in Spain Hamilton's car did not miss a beat and he took pole by 0.280s from his Mercedes teammate.
The Circuit de Catalunya is notoriously difficult to overtake on, putting Rosberg's run victories since the U.S. Grand Prix last year under threat.
"For sure I'm disappointed to be second, I wanted to be first today, of course," Rosberg said. "Lewis was just quicker in qualifying today and that's it.
"Fortunately it's the race that counts so there are still a couple of opportunities tomorrow for sure, at the start for example. Strategy wise it's not going to be an easy race tomorrow, so I'll try to take my chances there."
Mercedes dominated the qualifying session, but rather than Ferrari being on the second row in Spain the Red Bull drivers were second best.
"We're surprised to be so far ahead [of Ferrari] but at the same time we are surprised to see how close Red Bull are now," Rosberg added. "The only constant at the moment is us, we are always up there and always have a gap to whoever is second. That's impressive to see and that's thanks to the team that at every race we do a great job to keep the car working perfectly."