Mercedes confident over technical gremlins

Lewis Hamilton and Nico Rosberg went into opening practice Friday for this weekend`s Canadian Grand Prix confident that their Mercedes team will not struggle with the technical problems that hit them last year.

The two Mercedes men came into last season`s race hunting a sixth straight one-two finish, but problems with their cars` energy recovery systems wrecked that ambition.

Instead of a one-two, they finished with Rosberg hanging on to second place and Hamilton retired after the energy problems hit his car`s braking.

"We should have that under control this year," said Rosberg. "We had overheating problems with the electric motor or battery pack. They were overheating so that system shut down.

"The initial problem was the electric pack overheating and we have sorted that for this year because this is the most challenging track for that."

He explained that the long straights at the Circuit Gilles Villeneuve take the most power over a long distance and last year led to the overheating.

Having resolved that issue, he said the most likely technical problem for all the teams would be to warm-up their tyres.