Rosberg 'absolutely delighted' with sixth

"I am absolutely delighted with the result because today we were again the fourth placed team and it really shows that we are making progress from one race to the next," said Rosberg, whose result allowed him to score points for the fourth consecutive race.

"It's also positive for me because a good car allows me to show what I can do and I am now collecting points consistently, which was my target at the start of the season.

"BMW were too strong today, so finishing sixth was the best possible outcome. I am especially happy that I did well at this challenging track which was amazing to drive.

"From here I hope I can continue this progress and improve my placing in the drivers' championship over the next three races," added the German, who moved into ninth place in the drivers' standings.

Teammate Alex Wurz had a troubled day to forget, the Austrian finally retiring on lap 35 after a long-race struggle.

"Starting from 15th on the grid was anything but ideal and it was terribly frustrating," said Wurz. "But it was all uphill because we had some fuel pressure problems during the race.

"The problem got worse and worse, so I had to do an extra pitstop and try and recover fuel pressure, but it didn't work, so the team called me in before things got worse. I think it is easy to understand why I am not happy with today's result."