Rosberg predicts no Singapore repeat

The Williams driver was strong all weekend in Singapore and eventually went on to finish in second place, his best result of the season.

But the German could only manage the 13th quickest time in today's practice at Fuji and he is expecting his team to have more problems than in the previous race.

"It's definitely going to be more difficult here than it was in Singapore for us," said Rosberg. "It was quite hard out there this morning in particular.

"We struggled with a slight lack of grip on the rear of the car and some oversteer, but we made good progress over the course of the two sessions and we ended this afternoon in a better position."

Teammate Kazuki Nakajima posted the seventh fastest time in the afternoon session after also struggling for grip in the morning.

"It was a pretty good day for me," said Nakajima. "There wasn't much grip at the start of the morning session so I was struggling a bit with the car, but that was possibly due to the amount of fuel we were carrying. The car started to feel better towards the end of the morning and then felt much better in the afternoon on new tyres.

"We've tried out various set-ups today, which proved positive. The gap to the other cars is still very close though so we need to be a bit careful and plan well for qualifying. We'll have to see how tomorrow goes, but it looks like we're on the right track."