Lowe: Rosberg’s lack of running a setback, not a disaster

Rosberg was forced to sit out the entire 90 minutes of second free practice for the British Grand Prix due to a water leak, which the team couldn’t trace the source of.

“This isn’t great for Nico, this sets him back,” Lowe told Sky Sports F1. “He hasn’t had that practice today.

“In terms of general homework for the team, Lewis did a fantastic job in FP2, running the soft and medium in both low and high fuel. We’ve got our data for qualifying and the race which will carry across both cars. I think Nico will benefit from the running from Lewis’s car.

“By the time we go into FP3, Nico will get quickly up to speed and tune himself in before qualifying.

“You saw how he did it last week in Austria, went out and did three purple [sectors] straight out [after his FP3 suspension issues]. He has that ability.

“As we saw in FP1 today there was a mini competition between Lewis and Nico which was actually really exciting to see them trade the fastest lap with some really good pace.”

Car being “pulled apart”

Of the technical issue that stranded Rosberg’s car, Lowe was uncertain of the cause of the leak.

“We don’t know exactly to be honest,” he said. “We’ve pulled the car apart to look into it. There’s a small water leak and it appeared only just before the session started.

“We hoped to be able to run through it, without repairing it, because it’s a very small leak, but in the end we effectively took the cautious route to protect the engine, there was some risk of damage.

“This is a Friday engine, so it’s not an engine we intend to race again this season, but it could be if we have cause to do so. We didn’t want to risk damage to that at this stage.”