In the Eighties few drivers could match Keke Rosberg for his blend of speed and sheer tyre-on-the-grass driving exuberance. It was an approach that earned the chain-smoking charger a devoted following, not to mention world title success in 1982, but it also heaped expectations on his son, Nico, ahead of his F1 debut with Williams at Sakhir in 2006.

Would Rosberg Junior, racing for his mother’s Germany rather than his father’s Finland, be a chip off the old block? His capture of the GP2 Series crown at the same circuit the previous year suggested the 20-year-old had the necessary speed, but did he, like his dad, have the required tenacity to bump elbows with the best in F1 racing and come out on top?

The answer came not on the first lap of his first race in Bahrain - where a misjudgement caused him to make contact with BMW-Sauber’s Nick Heidfeld at Turn 1, dropping him to last after a lengthy pit stop to replace a damaged front wing - but over the next 56 tours when he roared back through the field with an assuredness that belied his inexperience.

“I looked at the pit board the first time around (after his early pit stop) and I was dead last and 60 seconds behind everyone, so I thought that was it and I didn't expect anything from the race,” Rosberg would later recall.

"Then all of a sudden I started moving up and then on the radio they were saying: 'Nico you're doing great, you're the fastest man on the circuit'. And I was like, 'no way'.

"It felt really good out there and I was just pushing like hell. I got closer and closer and then had some great overtaking manoeuvres...which was a lot of fun.”