Formula One news

Tyres the key issue, says Rosberg

Nico Rosberg was keen to collect as much tyre data as possible on Friday as the field experienced a wide range of track conditions in Brazil. With a dry track in the morning, rain soon ensured that both wet and drying surfaces were available to practice on with more showers predicted for the weekend.

Nico ended the day in eighth spot for Williams

Although the weather seemingly has a mind of its own in South America, rain did arrive in Brazil on Friday, albeit not the heavy showers which were forecast. "Today was all about tyre testing for qualifying and the race," Germany's Rosberg explained. "We know roughly what we will do but it's not entirely clear for the race; that will depend on how much the track improves.

"We also spent time looking at our downforce level but it's always difficult and sometimes you need to compromise because, on the one hand, you want to find the quickest lap possible but, on the other, you need to be careful that people are not able to overtake you on the straight."

The Grove squad also experimented with weight distribution on Kazuki Nakajima's car by placing strips of tungsten - the metal found in light bulbs - on the mainframe and sealing in place with a sticker; by adjusting the amounts of tungsten, the performance of the car was modified as the weight pattern changed.

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