Mercedes failed to score for the fourth race in succession after both Michael Schumacher and Nico Rosberg ran out of luck in Abu Dhabi. Schumacher was on target for points in eighth before suffering a puncture on lap 41, necessitating an unscheduled pit stop. In the end, Daniel Ricciardo held him off for the final point, leaving the seven-time champion disappointed.
“Unfortunately we have to say that again we suffered bad luck today. Due to the puncture I had to do another pit stop very late in the race which lost me a points scoring position. Of course this is part of the game and you cannot do anything about it but it was a real pity as we had reasonable pace and could have taken some points. Towards the end of the race I was hoping to close the gap to the top ten, and we were making good progress, but it just didn’t work out.”
Teammate Rosberg was unable to build on his impressive qualifying display when he damaged his front wing in a first lap collision with Romain Grosjean. As he recovered through the field, Rosberg was involved in a spectacular crash with Narain Karthikeyan, ending his race, but he didn’t place any blame on the HRT driver.
“My car felt competitive today so it’s a real shame not to have finished the race and scored some points. Unfortunately that chance was gone after the first lap incident with Romain, after which I had to come into the pits for a new nose. Then there was the accident which put me out of the race. Narain told me that his steering broke and he needed to brake which I didn’t expect in that high-speed corner. There was no time for me to react, and I’m very thankful that we are both fine. I went to the medical centre for a precautionary check but everything is good. I will look forward now and hope for a better two races to end the season.”
