Rosberg just aiming to salvage points

The German believes that the high-speed Monza circuit is not well-suited to the characteristics of the Williams FW31, and that matching the eighth place he took in the Belgian Grand prix would constitute a successful weekend.

"Seventh or eighth place would be a good success," said Rosberg. "We just have to accept that these two races [Spa and Monza] are difficult and then get back on it at Singapore."

Rosberg added that he expects McLaren to be setting the pace, and suspects that Red Bull could be the strongest of the non-KERS cars.

"The fastest car here, I predict will be a McLaren," said Rosberg. "I'm not sure if that's the case because I'm a bit worried about the quicker corners - but McLaren Ferrari and Red Bull.

"If it's not KERS, then it will be Red Bull in front. It's going to be a very difficult weekend for us."

Team-mate Kazuki Nakajima is also anticipating a difficult weekend, but suspects that the car will stronger than it was at Monza, where Rosberg was only just able to scrape into Q3.

Nakajima is still chasing his first points finish since last season's Singapore Grand Prix, but is not optimistic of a top eight finish.

"Last weekend at Spa was not such a good one and because of the downforce level, it's difficult to be optimistic for this weekend," Nakajima told AUTOSPORT.

"But everybody will have different aero packages and it's the same for us. And mechanically, the car will be better in Monza than in Spa because it's quite bumpy and the mechanical performance of the car is more important.

"But it's difficult to say where we will be until practice."