Nico Rosberg: “My excuse today is I didn’t have the radio working…”

Nico Rosberg’s pole streak was ended in Montreal when he had to settle for fourth, but only after radio problems badly compromised his session.

Rosberg was unable to get any information from the team and ultimately didn’t manage to do a time at the end due to a misunderstanding.

“My excuse today is I didn’t have my radio working, except for a very short space on the straight,” said Rosberg. “But the team didn’t know that, so it was more or less like having no radio. So I had no information, and that made it really difficult with these conditions.

“I didn’t have KERS working, because I didn’t have the right setting, I didn’t have brake temperatures up, and all these things. So that was my problem today. Actually fourth place is good, considering the circumstances. I was expecting a lot worse, because I didn’t even manage to do a lap in the end.

“If it would have been a normal, dry qualifying then it’s not that important, because you can tell me in the garage what I need to do, and it’s OK. Of course, it’s not ideal, but it would have been more or less OK. But with these conditions you just need so much information.

“Even in the end I was told two laps in the garage, and it turned out it was three laps that I had [left]. By the time I got to the end of my second I thought it was finished, and that was a very poor lap, and then starting the third I was just stuck on the gearbox of the Lotus [Raikkonen]. So I completely wasted that run and didn’t get a lap time in.”

He added: “I’m saying all my excuses for the day, but at the same time Lewis did a great job, so it would have been diffcult to beat Lewis anyways today.”

Rosberg implied that he was hoping for a wet race, given that the team still has its tyres issues.

“The car is really good in the wet, as in the dry, on one lap. In the wet it’s good even for a longer run, in the dry a longer run is still our weakness, tyre degradation. There are other teams that are stronger than us for sure. We need to manage it as best as possible for us and make the most of it, starting position wise it’s looking great, so maybe we can use that to our advantage, and finish well.”