Niki Lauda: 'Nico Rosberg must end slump soon'

Niki Lauda has warned Nico Rosberg that he needs to rediscover his form soon after losing early ground on teammate Lewis Hamilton in the drivers' championship.

The German, who pushed his Mercedes colleague until the last race of the 2014 campaign, has suffered an indifferent start to the season and an error in the final part of qualifying sees him on the second row for Sunday's Bahrain Grand Prix.

However, Mercedes non-executive chairman Lauda is refusing to write off Rosberg's chances of turning his fortunes around.

He told RTL: "From the first race in Melbourne, Lewis has simply done everything better. Nico needs to turn this around now.

"He needs to think about the counter-strategy he can do. It's not just about going faster, but thinking about something new to try to beat him."

Rosberg finished second to world champion Hamilton at the Chinese Grand Prix last time out.