Nico Rosberg is adamant Mercedes GP will be up to speed after lagging behind their rivals at Jerez.
Rosberg was in action on Thursday at the Spanish circuit, with his programme focused on further acclimatisation to the Mercedes KERS as well as set-up comparisons.
However, his running was curtailed due to a repeat of the hydraulic issue experienced at the previous outing in Valencia.
He finished the day with 67 laps and a best time of 1:23.963, which put him down in ninth place, 3.254s behind Ferrari's Felipe Massa.
And although it was not the first time that Mercedes GP found their W02 lagging behind their rivals, Rosberg is confident the team will be up to speed when the new season gets underway in March.
"Yeah, but we expected that," he said when asked about his lack of pace. "This is an interim car, it doesn't have a lot to do with the car we will have in Bahrain.
"We just need to put miles on it. It's important to get the systems working, like KERS, the cooling, and to work on reliability."
He added: "We have a significant step for Bahrain, so that's why I'm not looking at the times. The others might have a step as well, but it's impossible to say yet.
"My rear wing wasn't working, and that takes away so much from the lap time. It's really early days."
Credit: PlanetF1.com (www.planetf1.com)
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