Nico Rosberg frustrated after 'rubbish end' to bid for Canada pole

Nico Rosberg says the conclusion to qualifying in Canada was "rubbish" – but refused to make any excuses for his defeat to Lewis Hamilton.

The German, who won in both Spain and Monaco, was heard to bemoan a lacklustre finale to the top-10 shoot-out over his Mercedes radio after both he and the pole-sitting Hamilton failed to improve their lap times on their final runs.

“Everything was going really well, I felt comfortable, I was attacking and then it went completely wrong in Q3,” said Rosberg. “I went out and had less rear grip, the team think they know why, but let’s see, let’s analyse it. But that is just really disappointing because I completely lost it there and that is a pity.”

“It just went wrong in the end and that sucks.

“It is always difficult to explain it, because it is all excuses, excuses, excuses and it even bothers me to say these things and that is why it makes it a bit difficult to explain what went wrong in the end in Q3.”

But all is not yet lost for Rosberg at a circuit where the pole sitter has only won four of the last 10 events.

“There is an opportunity because on this track you can overtake and on the strategy there are some things that could be interesting and a bit of unknown also because of the rain we had on Friday so everyone doesn’t know exactly what is going to happen in the race," he added.

Meanwhile, Ferrari's Kimi Raikkonen, an animated picture of excitement in the post-qualy press conference, couldn’t contain his glee at the prospect of lining up in third.

"The whole weekend has been pretty good, no issues, and it's been as smooth as it can be with the conditions that have been here,” said the Finn. But I was a bit disappointed for the team that one car had some issues. But tomorrow is the race and usually we are a bit stronger there, so we have to make a good start, go from there and see what comes out.

"Obviously not ideal still, we want to be at the front, but it's better."