22/07/2011
NEWS STORY
The German Grand Prix weekend got underway today for the Mercedes GP Petronas team, with the first two practice sessions taking place at the historic Nurburgring circuit in the Eifel Mountains.
Michael and Nico both completed two busy and trouble-free practice sessions in dry but cool conditions. Michael completed 62 laps and Nico 65 laps - a total of nearly 650 km, equivalent to more than two race distances. The dry running was particularly valuable for further developing the new aerodynamic package introduced in Silverstone.
Michael Schumacher: "I'm quite happy with the work that we achieved today and we are going in a good direction. We are continually developing our car and days like today help that process. It's difficult to see the real picture for the weekend however; we don't know what fuel loads the other cars were running and we need to have a close look at our data. It was a really nice feeling to drive the corner which bears my name here in a Formula One car; I certainly wouldn't have imagined that at the time that we inaugurated the corner."
Nico Rosberg: "It's amazing to see how many spectators came to the Nurburgring today for the practice sessions. I love the atmosphere at the German Grand Prix and I tried to wave to the fans but there's not much space for it in the car! In general, I am happy with our work and progress today so far. It seems that the new parts are working quite well in the dry and I think there is a small step forward. However on Fridays, you never know exactly where you are and what the other teams are doing."
Ross Brawn: "We've had a solid day to start our German Grand Prix weekend here at the Nurburgring. It was a particularly useful day to further evaluate our new exhaust system following its introduction at Silverstone and the limited dry running that we were able to achieve there. It was a good effort from everyone in the two sessions today but it would be nice to find a little more lap time before qualifying tomorrow."
Norbert Haug: "A productive first day at our home Grand Prix: surprisingly it stayed dry, but the forecast still predicts rain for race day. We worked through our planned programme and evaluated all three different types of Pirelli tyre available to us today. Our race simulation at the end of P2 showed consistent lap times, which were of course still not quick enough compared to the top three teams. Our positions in the rankings today reflect more or less our current place in the pecking order."
To check out our Nurburgring practice gallery, click here