Rosberg optimistic of strong weekend

The German ended the afternoon seventh overall in the timesheets and is confident that the FW30 will be competitive whatever weather is thrown at the teams.

"During the pre-race test here last week, we had some mechanical updates to make our aero package work more effectively," said Rosberg.

"This circuit definitely suits us a bit better, so we can look forward to a better weekend than recently. Out on the track today it was pretty windy and on the straights I was being buffeted from side to side.

"However, we managed a good tyre test even though our decisions may change with the rain we are expecting. If the bad weather does come, it's no problem as we seem to go well in the rain."

Teammate Kazuki Nakajima was slowed by a misfire problem in the afternoon session which has left him unsure of his own prospects for the weekend.

"The morning practice didn't go too badly and we had both wet and dry running, which is good preparation for the weather we are likely to see here. However it wasn't a great afternoon as we lost quite a lot of time with a problem on the car.

"By the time we had fixed this, everybody out on track had moved on to doing their long runs and it was very difficult to find free space on the circuit, so it was difficult to see exactly where we ended the day."