Mercedes AMG PETRONAS and Nico Rosberg finished the fourth and final day of the first pre-season test seventh fastest at the Circuit de Catalunya.
The two-time world champions split the driving duties between their two drivers for the second day running with Rosberg at the wheel of the W07 for the afternoon run. The German completed 86 laps of the Circuit de Catalunya with a best time of 1m26.187s to finish the session in seventh, 0.108s faster than his team-mate Lewis Hamilton, who had driven the car during the morning session.
After a great start to the 2016 season, Rosberg is excited to see what Mercedes can achieve in qualifying when the season starts in Melbourne next month.
“It’s been a great start. Reliability is looking very, very good and the car feels quick,” said Rosberg. “It’s great even to look at. You take a walk around it and there’s some real innovation there.
“You can really see how far we’ve come as a team these past few years – it’s very impressive. I can’t wait to see what it can do when we get to qualifying in Melbourne. Pounding round on mediums all day isn’t always so fun! Physically it’s actually been ok. I knew it would be an intense couple of weeks so I prepared for it.”
“Of course, there’s a few bits that are sore,” Rosberg added. “Mostly from the seat as it’s solid carbon. But overall I’m really pleased with how it’s been. It’s useful to have done so much mileage, as we found a few small problems that maybe we wouldn’t have discovered with less track time.
“Nothing race ending – just small things – which could be very useful for Melbourne and beyond.”
