Nico Rosberg says pole position is less important at the Bahrain Grand Prix after being out-qualified by Mercedes team-mate Lewis Hamilton.

Rosberg was leading qualifying after the first runs in Q3, which saw Hamilton make a mistake at the final corner. However, when Mercedes and Ferrari went out again Hamilton nailed a perfect lap to steal pole by 0.07s.

Though he was convinced he had pole position Rosberg thinks previous years prove its limited significance at the Bahrain International Circuit.

"I was 100 percent sure that I had pole with that lap at the end, but Lewis jus managed to beat it by seven thousandths -- a blink of the eye -- so that was disappointing" Rosberg said. "But if there is one track where pole position isn't as important, it's here in Bahrain.

"So much can happen tomorrow, we've always seen big battles and overtaking is possible here. So I'm looking forward to a really interesting race with a lot of opportunities."

Mercedes was beaten off the line by Ferrari in Australia but Rosberg says the team is not expecting a repeat this weekend.

"We'll do the best possible strategy and then it will be an internal battle, with me against Lewis, that's what we're planning for. Of course we do think Ferrari will be a big threat so we need to keep an eye on them. But for now it's just the two of us.

"We've been working hard on our starts because they were better in Australia, we have improved, it's not perfect yet, and it's difficult to make big steps in such a short amount of time. But we're confident that we'll be OK."