Rosberg surprised by his own Bahrain pace

The reigning GP2 champion, who made his Formula One debut at Sakhir last weekend, impressed fans and paddock pundits alike when he stormed through the field to set the fastest lap of the race, making him the youngest driver to ever do so in the history of the F1 championship.

Rosberg recovered from a first-lap mistake that saw him lose his front wing in a clash with BMW's Nick Heidfeld, whom Rosberg replaced at Williams.

The rookie admitted to making a mistake, but he did not panic thereafter and instead drove a flawless race at a pace akin to the race leaders.

"I didn't expect to get anywhere near anybody," Rosberg said in a column written for sponsors Castrol.

"I looked at the pit board the first time around (after the pitstop to replace the front wing) and I was dead last and 60 seconds behind everyone, so I thought that was it and I didn't expect anything from the race.

"Then all of a sudden I started moving up and then on the radio they were saying: 'Nico you're doing great, you're the fastest man on the circuit'. And I was like, 'no way'.

"It felt really good out there and I was just pushing like hell. I got closer and closer and then had some great overtaking manoeuvres...which was a lot of fun.

"I could feel that I was bloody quick, but it was a bit of a surprise. I mean you have [Michael] Schumacher and [Fernando] Alonso driving flat out at the front and I was racing quicker than them, so it was a bit surprising to me, but it was really great."

Rosberg added that the race was an important achievement for his relationship with his team.

He said: "It was important from my point of view to show the team that I'm definitely on it and that I can be really quick and that's an important thing for me to have showed them.

"It's early days, but Bahrain was a great start."