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 young German for great things in the future.

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 with Williams.

"Nico developed so much between the 2006 and 2007 seasons," the Austrian veteran told Motorsport Aktuell. "Especially in qualifying, I th෴ink 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 himꦬ," underlined Williams engineering director Patrick Head🍌, "but it didn't work."

Head acknowledged the highlights of Wurz's season - including third 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".