Nico Rosberg topped the timesheets in the morning’s session and ended up third in today’s second free practice session, but the Mercedes driver is mainly focused on the challenges which lay ahead, namely heat and tyre degradation.

– #Quiz360: WIN a group paintball session at Zayed Sports City
– Lewis Hamilton admits Ferrari ‘look great’

“This year we supposedly have tyres which suffer less but it doesn’t seem like that at the moment,” Rosberg said. “Track temperatures out there are more than 60 degrees, and I can actually feel the heat from the asphalt come up through the chassis and straight into the cockpit. It’s extremely hot in the car.”

With regard to tyre degradation, Rosberg foresees just a short stint on the softer compound rubber.

“The prime is going to be the race tyre, and we’ll just have to see how far we can get on the softer ones. Qualifying is important but so is strategy with the heat and tyres, a lot can happen in the race.”

With Lewis Hamilton’s car victim of a power unit failure in the morning’s session, reliability issues have crept up to the forefront of Mercedes priorities.

“Yes, Lewis had a problem. That’s not ideal for sure and they are going to have to find a solution overnight. But I’m confident and fine in the car. The pace is good.”