SUZUKA, Japan -- Nico Rosberg is expecting Red Bull to put pressure on Mercedes for the second weekend in a row at Sunday's Japanese Grand Prix.
Red Bull's Daniel Ricciardo won last weekend's Malaysian Grand Prix after Lewis Hamilton retired from the lead with an engine failure. Red Bull had looked closer to Mercedes all weekend and Rosberg said Friday's long-run comparisons at Suzuka tell a similar story.
"[We have] decent one-lap balance and times are okay and the race pace we're looking good as well, but Red Bull seems to be a lot closer, a bit similar to Malaysia," he said.
"[My session] started off not so good with lots of understeer and then eventually it was okay. I'm glad to hear from your fellow journalists that the others were complaining about understeer as well, so everybody had it."
Asked what it takes to secure pole here, Rosberg added: "Balance has to be spot on here. It's so crucial with those Esses, one corner leads to the next and if you get the first one a bit wrong then the rest of them are going to be wrong too. So you really need to nail it."