Rosberg highlights Williams threat in Austria

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Nico Rosberg believes Williams could be a surprise threat to Mercedes at this weekend's Austrian Grand Prix.

F1 returned to the Red Bull Ring in 2014 and Williams upset Mercedes by locking out the front row, the only occasion Mercedes failed to take pole position that year. While Mercedes has secured one-two results in each of the last two races in Austria, Williams has been third on both occasions and Rosberg is wary of the threat it could pose this weekend.

"Now we go to Austria, which has been a real strength for us as a team in the past two years," Rosberg said. "It'll be tough against the Williams cars in particular, as they've pushed us hard there before. But I think our Silver Arrow is still definitely the best package on the grid and I can't wait to see what it can do in Spielberg."

Rosberg won on both occasions at the Red Bull Ring - from pole in 2014 and second on the grid last year - and he is targeting a hat-trick of victories.

"To have two wins from two races at any track is pretty special, so if I could make it three in three that would be awesome. It's a short run to the first corner there and generally my starts and first corners have been strong this season, so if I can qualify well there's a good chance of a top result. I'm looking forward to the weekend."

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Andrew Lewin

Andrew first became a fan of Formula 1 during the time when Michael Schumacher and Damon Hill were stepping into the limelight after the era of Alain Prost, Nigel Mansell and Aryton Senna. He's been addicted ever since, and has been writing about the sport now for nearly a quarter of a century for a number of online news sites. He's also written professionally about GP2 (now Formula 2), GP3, IndyCar, World Rally Championship, MotoGP and NASCAR. In his other professional life, Andrew is a freelance writer, social media consultant, web developer/programmer, and digital specialist in the fields of accessibility, usability, IA, online communities and public sector procurement. He worked for many years in magazine production at Bauer Media, and for over a decade he was part of the digital media team at the UK government's communications department. Born and raised in Essex, Andrew currently lives and works in south-west London.