Nico Rosberg was left disappointed and apologetic after ending his day early after hitting the wall at turn seven during the wet second practice at Albert Park and damaging his Mercedes AMG PETRONAS W07’s front wing.
The German had finished sixth fastest in the first session, failing to set a representative lap time when conditions were at their best before the rain fell once more, but crashed on just his fifth lap in FP2, breaking the new 2016 front wing that had not been fitted during FP1 just in case it got damaged.
Rosberg will now be looking to put his misfortune on Friday behind him, and is looking to perform well during the final free practice session on Saturday morning that precedes the new-look qualifying session to be held on Saturday afternoon.
“That wasn’t a good start to the weekend for me,” said Rosberg. “It was very wet out there, which made it tricky.
“It’s a shame that I lost the car in P2. I just applied a little too much throttle through Turn 7, spun round and touched the wall. My front wing was quite damaged, so unfortunately the boys will have some extra work to do tonight.
“My apologies go to them and a big thank you for their hard work. I’m now looking forwards towards qualifying and the race to put in a better performance.”
