Rosberg's engine has done two more races than Lewis Hamilton's
Friday 27 November 2015 17:29, UK
Nico Rosberg feels his chances of victory in Abu Dhabi will be hampered by using an older engine than Mercedes team-mate Lewis Hamilton.
The German set the pace in Practice Two at the Yas Marina Circuit, outpacing Hamilton by around two tenths of a second.
However, Rosberg's worry stems from being forced to take his fourth and final penalty-free engine of the season earlier than Hamilton after his upgraded unit suffered unreliability problems at the Italian GP.
Rosberg's fourth power unit was used in Singapore and Japan, two races before Hamilton's final engine was introduced at the Russian GP.
"It's been a good start to the weekend even though Lewis didn't show his pace on one lap," Rosberg told Sky Sports News HQ.
"In general it's going to be difficult because I have an extremely old engine, as a result of having lost my fourth engine of the year.
"I have a lot of miles on, and that's definitely costing straight line speed. It's going to be a difficult weekend as a result but I'll just have to go quicker in the corners."
Despite finishing Friday slower than Rosberg, Hamilton is confident he can deliver when it matters on Saturday and end the German's run of five successive pole positions.
"I didn't really get the best out of the tyres," he told Sky Sports F1. "I feel good. I've made some changes to the car and so far it feels relatively good.
"I'll make some more tweaks tonight and hopefully tomorrow it'll feel even better."
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