- Jerez Test, Day Two
Mercedes back on target - Rosberg
Nico Rosberg says Mercedes is back on target after its front wing failure on the opening day of testing.
Lewis Hamilton crashed heavily at Turn One on Tuesday after his front wing folded underneath his front tyres at the end of the pit straight. The front left of the car was quite badly damaged but the chassis was fine and Mercedes was able to get beef up the front wing and get the car back on track with Rosberg at the wheel by 11.30 on Wednesday.
By the end of the day he had completed 97 laps, more than any other team has managed in a single day this week.
"The team did a brilliant job, the whole team together," Rosberg said. "Not so much me but everyone else! It went a bit wrong yesterday with Lewis having a shunt with his technical problem, and the team fixed the bits during the night so thanks to those who were up all night and brought it back on the morning. It was such a great day, we drove and drove and drove and that's what we need at the moment. That's how you can really progress, get rid of early problems and learn everything better.
"I don't know [if we are ahead of the game]. It's just one day, one day that's been going well for us whereas yesterday did not go so well. We can say we are on target today with the amount of miles we wanted to do."
Rosberg added that the new car and V6 turbo engine did not feel dramatically different to last year's V8s.
"The car feels ok, it doesn't feel too different," he added. "It feels heavier so it feels like last year in a race with a lot of fuel, there's less downforce and the engine is a bit different. There are higher gears so at a hairpin you are going to be using third gear instead of first gear sometimes, like last year. I don't know about an early season advantage we just have to push on getting the miles on, get rid of all the reliability problems for the first few races and try and improve our actual speed and after a day like today we are on track."
© ESPN Sports Media Ltd.
