Rosberg feels confident

24 June 2015 06:02

Nico Rosberg overcame a gearbox issue to head the timesheets on the final day of this week's test in Austria.

Rosberg, who is only 10 points adrift of Lewis Hamilton in the championship following his win in Spielberg on Sunday, posted a quickest lap of 1min 09.113 secs.

The Mercedes driver encountered a gearbox problem in the morning, but went on to complete 117 laps at the Red Bull Ring.

"The car felt good so I'm sure we will be strong at the next race," said Rosberg ahead of next week's British Grand Prix.

"It's a very fast track and you have to drive it very hard. But that sort of content - high-speed corners needing good downforce - is a speciality of this car, so I'm feeling confident."

Rosberg, who will be at the Goodwood Festival of Speed on Sunday, ended the day - the final test session of the season - almost a second clear of Ferrari test driver Esteban Gutierrez with Valtteri Bottas' Williams in third.

Fernando Alonso meanwhile, completed 104 laps for McLaren as the British team bid to recover from the worst start to a grand prix season in their coveted history.

The Spaniard's best time of 1:10.757 was a second-and-a-half slower than pacesetter Rosberg.

"Today was a positive day", Alonso said. "The most important thing was to put some laps on the car after the problems we've had in the last couple of races.

"We managed to complete more than 100 laps, and I think we finished the test with some good information.

"Now, we need to go back to the factory and analyse everything, but we definitely have a lot of data to go forward with. I'm pretty happy with how the test has gone."

Source: PA