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Improving Mercedes ready to race - Rosberg

Nico Rosberg has completed 257 laps over his two days in the car in Barcelona © Sutton Images

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Nico Rosberg feels that Mercedes has made progress from 2011 and is now ready to find out where that will leave the team compared to its rivals.

On the penultimate day of pre-season testing Rosberg was ninth fastest after completing 129 laps, but was still only 0.8s slower than the fastest time of the day. Having enjoyed a reliable final day in the W03 Rosberg said he was pleased with the improvements that Mercedes has made and was looking forward to competitive action in Melbourne getting underway.

"I think we're ready." Rosberg said. "It's important for us this year to progress from last year and I think we're definitely going to be able to do that. So from that point of view I'm pleased and it's exciting now to go to the first race and see where we are and finally all the talking stops on Saturday and we'll see where we are in qualifying and the race."

When asked how the car had responded to different fuel levels after it appeared to be slightly harder on its tyres than the likes of Lotus, Rosberg said tyre degradation wasn't a concern.

"Generally it's been a positive day again, on the longer runs and also on the shorter runs, different kinds of fuel levels also. It's been good and for the long runs it's looking OK ... It's always a limitation, so it's difficult to know exactly where everybody else is. So we put in a decent long run today with the fuel that we have and then you can't really compare. You never know what the others are doing and what fuel they have, but it's a good base to start off with for us; we're definitely in the right direction, progressing."

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