Rosberg takes blame for practice accident

Mercedes had elected not to run its 2016 nose in the morning session for fear it could get damaged in the wet conditions.

But unfortunately, with it on the car in the afternoon, Rosberg got it wrong at Turn 7 in the damp.

He lost control of the rear of his W07 and, as he tried to correct the error, he swiped the wall with the front of his car.

Despite attempting to return to the pits he was told to stop amid concern he was leaving too much debris on the circuit.

Speaking about what happened, Rosberg said: "That wasn't a good start to the weekend for me. It was very wet out there, which made it tricky.

"It's a shame that I lost the car in P2. I just applied a little too much throttle through Turn 7, spun round and touched the wall.

"My front wing was quite damaged, so unfortunately the boys will have some extra work to do tonight.

"My apologies go to them and a big thank you for their hard work. I'm now looking forwards towards qualifying and the race to put in a better performance."

New corner

Mercedes has enough spare parts to ensure that Rosberg will have another 2016 nose available for the remainder of the weekend.

However, the team has made some precautionary changes to the car as a result of what happened.

Technical chief Paddy Lowe said: "Fortunately it wasn't too major. The front wing was damaged and we've replaced the left front corner as a precaution - but nothing that will affect him over the rest of the weekend."