Mercedes AMG Petronas
Nico Rosberg conceded that Mercedes team-mate Lewis Hamilton was out of reach as the Briton cruised to his 10th pole position of the year in Belgium.
Rosberg, who claimed pole at Spa Francorchamps last season, made an error on his first run at Stavelot and was unable to bridge the gap to Hamilton on his second lap, ultimately finishing 0.458s down on his team-mate.
"For sure [I'm] disappointed, I lost it in the final practice session and we went the wrong way, came back and I had a good balance in qualifying, but Lewis was just too quick in the end," he said.
"[He] found the bit extra that I didn’t have in my pocket, but with the new start situation there’s a lot more opportunity tomorrow and there’s a long run down to Turn 5 so my hopes are still high."
Rosberg suffered a high-speed tyre failure during Friday practice and says that the lack of a definitive cause for the issue remains a concern.
"The problem is that we don’t really understand it, there’s theories but no real evidence so that’s a bit worrying for sure, but we’ve done some measures to ensure it doesn’t happen again so we’ve done the best we can and hope it stays together," he concluded.
