OFFICIAL PRESS RELEASE
Shanghai, China, Apr 17, 2011
A thrilling Chinese Grand Prix in Shanghai today saw Nico Rosberg and Michael Schumacher take the chequeredflag in fifth and eighth places to secure the MERCEDES GP PETRONAS team’s first double-points finish of the season.
• Nico & Michael drove strong races with numerous overtaking battles and made the most of the car’s performance
• Nico stopped on laps 12, 25 & 39 and followed an option/option/option/prime strategy
• Michael stopped on laps 10, 26 & 39 also following an option/option/option/prime strategy
• Nico was forced to save fuel in the last third of the race which compromised his ability to fight for a podium finish
NICO ROSBERG
“Naturally I’m disappointed with the race today as we know that we didn’t make the most of our opportunity out there. We’ve made a big step with the car this weekend which is really nice to see and we will have better races in future. Leading the race for such a long time was a great feeling but we had issues with the fuel consumption which made it really difficult to fight for position. We could have had a podium finish or maybe more today, but we will learn from this together as a team and make sure that we get the results next time.”
MICHAEL SCHUMACHER
“That was a lot of racing in one Grand Prix this afternoon and very exciting! I had a lot of fun this afternoon and I’m so pleased to see the hard work of our guys paid off this weekend. We have made a big step forward with our car and it worked very well. We are heading towards the first race in Europe now and will bring some upgrades to Istanbul which should help us to improve even more. It is good to leave Asia with a positive feeling.”
ROSS BRAWN
“We had a very encouraging race today from the point of view of our overall pace and performance. Nico and Michael did a fantastic job in making use of what they had, and our strategy and pit stops were very good. It’s disappointing that we had to start looking at fuel saving with Nico which ultimately cost him at least a podium finish. We need to look into why we suffered so much higher fuel consumption in the race than we had experienced in practice, even allowing for the changes in conditions and grip. There was clearly a problem and it’s very frustrating for Nico and the team. However we can take away positives from this weekend in knowing that if we do a decent job, we can be competitive.”
NORBERT HAUG
“The speed of our cars today was very good and much better than I expected. Unfortunately both Nico and Michael had higher fuel consumption than expected and both needed to save fuel for many laps. I am sure that otherwise Nico could have finished on the podium and Michael higher in the points. Both drivers drove excellently today, our strategy was good, the pit stops were well-executed and both cars ran reliably, so that is all positive. Thank you to everyone at MERCEDES GP PETRONAS and Mercedes-Benz HighPerformanceEngines for their relentless work. A better result was possible today but we will work very hard to achieve that sooner rather than later.”
* Official photos and report courtesy of MERCEDES GP PETRONAS *
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