Only one half of the Mercedes garage was happy during the damp opening day of the 2016 Formula One season, with Nico Rosberg ending the day early after damage from the wall. The Mercedes driver will return to the track for free practice three.
After only four laps of running in free practice two, the Mercedes team had to call it quits for one of their cars. Rosberg spun the car in the damp conditions and made contact with the wall, damaging the front wing of the car. There were some repairs to do, some required and some precautionary, which prevented the car from returning to the track for the day.
The track conditions were far from ideal, with rain dampening the track for both of the Friday sessions. “It was very wet out there, which made it tricky,” explained Nico Rosberg. “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.”
Rosberg finished the session with the slowest time, although four other drivers were unable to set a time during the session. The first session of the weekend was a little more positive for Rosberg, as he set the sixth fastest time of the session. He was still two seconds down on his teammate’s pace.
Despite the damage to the car not being too major, the team still performed some precautionary repairs overnight. “Fortunately it wasn’t too major,” said the team’s Executive Director, Paddy Lowe. “The front wing was damaged and we’ve replaced the left front corner as a precaution – but nothing that will affect him over the rest of the weekend. We have a lot of work to do in FP3 tomorrow to prepare for qualifying and the race – but it’s the same for everybody.”
On the other side of the Mercedes garage, it was a much more positive day. Lewis Hamilton topped the time charts in both sessions, despite the damp conditions that caused many drivers to have an off. The World Champion said that the car performed well and that the team was able to get a glimpse of the car’s performance during some dry laps that he was able to complete. He was eager to get back in the car, describing his emotions while sitting in the garage as “a kid waiting to open his presents at Christmas”.
The cars return to the track on Saturday, for what is expected to be another damp day. Conditions are expected to improve for qualifying and the race, which is when we will be able to see the true pace of the 2016 grid and whether Ferrari can pose a threat to Mercedes this season.
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