Nico Rosberg says that tyre degradation at Mercedes will be the key to the Chinese GP – but adds that will open up an opportunity for him to beat pole man Lewis Hamilton.

“I’m going for the fight, for sure,” he said tonight. “That’s what I’m going to do tomorrow, definitely. I’ve got the car to do it, I prepared well for the race on Friday, I’m comfortable with driving the car on high fuel.

“It’s going to be a very challenging race, because we have the option tyre to start off with, and that’s going to fall apart at some point, quite dramatically, so there’s going to be a lot going on at that point in time in the race, and there the Ferraris who might be able to go longer than us, as we’ve seen in Malaysia.”

Rosberg is pleased that things could be mixed up a bit: “So I wonder how that will then play with the strategy and everything. Even the prime tyre, it’s going to be on the edge. So tyre degradation wise it’s going to be an interesting race for us, and plenty of opportunities also, and that’s a great thing.

“There’s been a race like Melbourne where there was no opportunity. I was very, very close, but the strategy, there was just one, there was no tyre degradation, so there was just no opportunity for me to take. Here tomorrow there’s many opportunities, and that’s a very good thing.”