Nico Rosberg warns Mercedes to beware Ferrari race pace

Manama: Nico Rosberg topped the times for Mercedes on Friday and then warned his team that improving Ferrari will be a major threat to their supremacy in Sunday`s Bahrain Grand Prix.

Rosberg, who outpaced team-mate and world champion Briton Lewis Hamilton by one-tenth of a second in Friday`s second practice session, said Ferrari had clocked impressive times over race distances during the earlier free practice in the hottest part of the day.

"I think it was a good day overall, today, for us," said the 29-year-old German. "But, obviously, the lunchtime session was a bit useless because it`s so hot and the race is in the evening...

"So we didn`t learn much and that`s why this evening, when the temperature went down again, it was important to do many laps. It was good, but the pace of the Ferraris is very worrying because in qualifying we are again much quicker, but in the race they are quick.

"In the evening, we learned that we were very quick on one lap again and the Ferrari is very dangerous to us on the long run because they have serious pace."

Rosberg`s concern came after he and Hamilton had topped the session and given an impression of easy domination again at the Sakhir Circuit.

Kimi Raikkonen was half a second adrift back in third in his Ferrari ahead of team-mate German Sebastian Vettel.