Alex Wurz says he rates former team-mate Nico Rosberg the fastest driver over a single lap in the top flight, and has tipped the you꧅ng German for great things in the f෴uture.

Rosberg joined Formula 1 from GP2 - where he clinched the crown in 2005, the category's inaugural season - and made an immediate impression, racing into the points🐼 on his grand prix debut and lining up an incredible third on the grid next time out in Malaysia. Last year - his sophomore campaign - the 22-year-out comprehensively out-qualified Wurz 16 times to one when the pair were both w🐻ith Williams.

"Nico developed so much between the 2006 and 2007 seasons," the Austrian veteran told Motorsport Aktuell. "Especially in qualifying, 🧜I think he is the best in the paddock."

Wurz notched up 13 points last season - seven fewer than Rosberg - but unlike his team-mate rarely did he look a consistent threat to trouble the front-runners, which precipitated his decision to pull the curtain down on his racing career in the uppermost echelon a race early in China. He has since joined Honda as the Japanese concern's test-driver, a role in which he says he feels far more at home [see separate story - 168澳洲幸运5官方开奖结果历史:click here].

"We did our best to help him," underlined Williams engineering director Patrick Head﷽, "but it didn't work."

Head acknowledged the highlights of Wurz's season - including thir✤d place amidst the chaos in Canada - but he added that on too many other occasions there was seldom "a sign that he could frequently go into the points".