The Mercedes pairing of Nico Rosberg and Michael Schumacher both completed 48 laps over the two Friday practice sessions in Abu Dhabi as the team prepare for the final race of the 2010 Formula 1 season.
Robserg finished the day tenth fastest, and sounded reasonably satisfied with how his weekend is progressing so far. “We made some good progress today and are definitely going the right way with the set-up,” he said. “It took some time and a few steps in different directions to find the improvements, and whilst there are some issues that we need to solve, overall it is looking ok. My F-duct wasn't working properly today which wasn't ideal but we will fix that overnight ready for the weekend.”
Schumacher is enjoying his first experience of driving the Yas Marina circuit and, after finishing eleventh today, is hoping qualify a bit higher up the grid tomorrow. “It is quite interesting to drive in the day/night conditions here and it makes this track special and the event fun,” said the seven-time world champion. “The track itself was not too complicated to learn so all in all, it was okay today. We did not really face any special issues so I really look forward to tomorrow's qualifying when I will try to get a good lap together to make it as far up on the grid as possible.”
Ross Brawn was also satisfied with Mercedes‘ efforts today, and is aiming for a strong result as the 2010 season comes to a close. “We have had a reasonable start to the weekend here in Abu Dhabi with both Nico and Michael finding a good set-up direction by the end of the second session this evening,” said the Mercedes team principal. “We achieved some interesting evaluations today which should stand us in good stead to have a positive final race weekend of the season here.”