Ross Brawn described Mercedes qualifying performance in Korea today as ‘solid’. Nico Rosberg was fifth fastest and Michael Schumacher qualified ninth.
Rosberg qualified ahead of Felipe Massa and Jenson Button and acknowledged that it would have been very difficult for him to get any higher up the starting order. “I’m very pleased with fifth place and it is the best possible position that we could have achieved today,” he said. “It’s nice to be ahead of one of the McLaren and Ferrari cars and also Robert (Kubica) who has been very close to us recently.
“We’re in a good position for the race tomorrow. Strategy will be crucial with the tyre graining but we are strong in that area and with a bit of luck, it would be nice to give the team a great result.”
Schumacher was also in good spirits after qualifying tomorrow and anticipates a good result tomorrow. “I had a busy qualifying getting everything together with some changes we made but I’m quite happy with my position,” he said. “There was no room for much more today. The team did a great job getting both cars into Q3 and we will be starting from the better side of the track in my opinion.
“I’m quite optimistic for tomorrow and we should score some points, especially as our set-up is focused on the race. We had a good race pace in practice yesterday and I’m looking forward to the first Korean Grand Prix.”
Team principal Ross Brawn agreed with his drivers’ evaluations of qualifying and also predicts a good race for the team: “We have seen another solid performance from the team and our drivers here with Nico putting in a particularly good lap in qualifying today to achieve fifth place. The team have got the most out of the car and adapted well to the new circuit. We have good straightline speed and the car seems reasonable on high fuel so we can look forward to an exciting race tomorrow.”
