Wehrlein can still feel old back injury

Pascal Wehrlein says he can still feel the effects of his recent back injury.

After missing Australia and China, the German returned to his Sauber in Bahrain and confirmed that he had recovered from three broken vertebrae.

And on track, he duly impressed, clearly outpacing his teammate Marcus Ericsson.

"He has hit back in a spectacular way," Toto Wolff, head of Mercedes’ junior driver programme, said.

At the same time, 22-year-old Wehrlein admitted he can still feel his old back injury.

"It can be like that for another half year," German reports quote him as saying.

"But I am not concerned.

"It’s ok. I can still feel it in my back a little, but it was not a problem to do the long runs."

In fact, he said the intense training he was able to do in the past few weeks has made him "absolutely ready" for the rest of the 2017 season.

"My (fitness) numbers, especially the strength, are very different compared to Melbourne," said Wehrlein.

"I have no concerns that there will be problems again."