10/07/2011
NEWS STORY
Nico Rosberg and Michael Schumacher finished in sixth and ninth places respectively today at the end of an action-packed British Grand Prix at Silverstone, taking the Mercedes GP Petronas team to fourth place in the Constructors' Championship.
Both drivers started the race on intermediates tyres, meaning that they no longer had to use both dry compounds. Nico ran a two-stop strategy, stopping for option tyres on laps 12 and 30, and making his final set last 22 laps. Michael's race was compromised by a collision with Kamui Kobayashi on lap 9 whilst running in ninth place. This forced Michael to pit for a new nose and cost him a 10s stop-go penalty. Michael made three stops: on lap 9 for option tyres and a new nose, lap 16 for the stop-go, and on lap 31, again for options.
Nico Rosberg: "I'm pretty pleased with our result this weekend. First of all because in qualifying we had the potential to be in the top five, and secondly we had a really good strategy in the race. My start was not good, so being able to eventually finish in sixth place is a nice result for us. And hopefully it's the start of an upward trend, before our next home race in Germany, so I'm looking forward to confirming our performance at the Nürburgring. In the next few days, we will analyse the whole weekend with our new developments on the car, and will work hard on improving it even further."
Michael Schumacher: "My result today is a bit of a shame, and of course I am not happy about it. I think fifth or even fourth place would not have been out of question today thanks to the superb job the guys back in Brackley and Brixworth have done. I would so much have wished to bring them some decent points this evening when we go back to the factory for a BBQ with their families. But unfortunately, and due to my fault, I cannot. Having used DRS for the first time in the race, I was arriving at the corner with over-run. Underestimating the effect, my braking was not good and this is how the collision happened. It was right to get a penalty but why it had to be a stop-go, and not a drive-through penalty, I would like to understand better as I felt it was too hard. Anyway, the good thing is that step-by-step, the hard work of our team is paying off more and more, and this is a good feeling heading towards our next home race."
Ross Brawn: "This was a solid result for the team and a decent haul of points: after starting ninth and 13th respectively, Nico and Michael made good progress up the field. They had mixed fortunes at the start - Michael gained four positions, while Nico dropped three places as he lost out in the first few corners. Michael's race was obviously spoiled by his collision and it carried a double penalty, as he did a slow lap to the pits and then had the stop-go penalty. However, after that he drove very well and climbed back from as low as 17th to score two points. Nico's race was more straightforward, but we set him a real challenge asking him to go the end of the race from lap 30, and he did an extremely solid job to achieve that. This was the first race for this car specification, with new exhaust outlets and aerodynamic developments, and we had only an hour of dry running, mainly with one car, before qualifying. With that in mind, we can be encouraged by our performance today. One of our previous difficulties had been making the tyres last properly, but both drivers managed to run over 115km on a set of options this afternoon, which suggests we have made some good progress in this area."
Norbert Haug: "The start of the race in partly damp conditions did not quite develop according to plan. Nico lost three places on lap one whereas Michael gained four. Taking into consideration that Nico completed the first lap in 12th, sixth place is a respectable result. We showed today that we could handle the tyres during a two-stop strategy, when most of the top ten finishers chose three stops. Michael had an eventful race, touching Kobayashi's Sauber in the early stages, which forced him into the pits early for a nose change, and some laps later, a stop-go penalty. He then dropped back to 17th, so his recovery to ninth place was impressive. Well done to our team at one of our home races. We all will work very hard to further improve our package for our next home race at the Nürburgring in a fortnight."
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