Nico Rosberg is grateful the Melbourne circuit stayed wet following his spin as it meant he did not lose vital track time in Friday practice.
Rosberg lost control of his car coming through Turn 7 early in the wet FP2 session, with the rear stepping out and the front of the car spearing into the wall. The impact wrecked one of Mercedes' new S-duct noses -- nicknamed 'Bruce' by the team -- and forced him to stop on track.
The wet track meant drivers were forced to stick to the intermediate tyres for the rest of FP2, however, meaning Rosberg did not miss out on any dry tyre running.
Asked if he felt relieved the track did not dry out, Rosberg replied: "Yeah, that's the case. Definitely good for me it didn't dry out as now I don't have downside. Not good the car has got damage, that's far from ideal."
The German took the blame for the incident, saying: "It's not really brave, the conditions were ok -- on the edge but they were fine. I accelerated too much and got it wrong."
Saturday sees the first running of the live elimination qualifying format adopted just weeks before the start of the season. Some have suggested the new rules will take away the previous excitement of Q3, especially if the lead cars stay in the garage to save a set of tyres late in the session -- something that would effectively lead to three minutes of an empty track.
Rosberg insists Mercedes would not think of doing that so early in the season.
"That would be a bit overconfident at this point. Definitely we're not planning to do that, no ... Tomorrow is going to be a big day though. We need to practice for the race and for qualifying in the morning, then we get straight into qualifying in the afternoon. First time on the super-softs is going to be exciting, lots of grip, new qualifying rules, all that together is going to be a lot going on."