Mercedes GP Team Principal Ross Brawn described their qualifying performance as reasonable after Nico Rosberg and Michael Schumacher claimed seventh and ninth respectively. Brawn admitted the positions reflected the current performance of the MGP W02 and hopes his drivers can bring home some solid points tomorrow.
“A reasonable qualifying session for us today with Nico and Michael getting the most out of the car that we had. Our positions are about where we are at the moment. During this morning’s practice session, we focused on our race performance, and that should pay off for us tomorrow afternoon. It’s likely to be quite a tricky race with the tyres as the super softs are right on the limit, so we will have to look after them carefully and make the most of them.”
Nico Rosberg was satisfied with his performance on Saturday and after saving a new set of the super-soft tyres during qualifying, feels he may have the strategy to make gains in the race.
Nico Rosberg was satisfied with his performance on Saturday and after saving a new set of the super-soft tyres during qualifying, feels he may have the strategy to make gains in the race.
“Qualifying in seventh place was ok today; we had a good set-up after this morning’s practice and I did a good lap in Q3. I’m pleased to have saved one set of new option tyres for the race which will hopefully help me to score some good points.”
Michael Schumacher couldn't match the performance of his teammate and wound up eight tenths slower in Q3. The seven-time champion admitted that he didn't feel as comfortable on the option tyres as he had on the primes but is still hopeful of a good race.
“The positive thing that I can take from qualifying today is that I will be starting from the better side of the grid in ninth place. However there are also things which we need to investigate further as the first two sectors did not work out well for us today. They were fine with the prime tyres, but not with the super softs, so we will have a close look into the reasons why. As always, we will try to do the best that we can in the race tomorrow.”
Motorsport boss Norbert Haug admitted that the team was unable to challenge the top three on Saturday but still feels it may be possible for his drivers to finish higher than they are starting.
"Nico and the team did a good job today in getting the maximum from our current technical package and putting the car in seventh position behind the three top teams. The fact that Mark was on pole one week ago and now is in sixth place demonstrates how tough the battle in this group is, and how challenging it is to break into the top six this season. Michael had a more difficult Q3 and struggled slightly with the set-up of his car. By using primes in Q1 and doing only one outing in Q2 and Q3, Nico saved one set of fresh options for the race which will be very helpful tomorrow. It will be a challenging race for us and our aim is to come home where we are starting or slightly better."
