24/07/2011
NEWS STORY
Mercedes GP Petronas drivers Nico Rosberg and Michael Schumacher finished their home race in seventh and eighth positions today as a chilly Nurburgring circuit hosted the German Grand Prix.
Nico completed three stops today, on laps 14, 36, 53, running option/option/option/prime. Michael completed three stops, on laps 15, 37, 56, running option/option/option/prime. Michael's spin on lap 23 cost him over 15 seconds before he began his recovery drive to eight place.
Nico Rosberg: "I had a good start to the race today and made up one position on the first lap to be running in fifth place. However I didn't have a perfect set-up today and the car wasn't working quite as well as in qualifying. I had some good battles with Massa but despite pushing hard, it was impossible to keep him behind me. Seventh place is ok but we know that we have some work to do to maximise our latest upgrades in the race. I have a great team behind me, both the engineers and the boys in the garage, so I am confident that we will do this and we will see what happens next week in Hungary."
Michael Schumacher: "It was a pretty exciting race today with lots of action for both the spectators and the drivers. Hopefully everyone in the grandstands was entertained and it made up for the cold temperatures a little. My spin caught me by complete surprise, but that spot is known to be tricky in wet conditions, even if the conditions were not so wet today. Anyway, it obviously cost me some positions which was a shame. Towards the end, rain could have helped but the chances were low so I did not count on it. All in all, I am ok with the race. With the little improvements we have made, we can look forward to Hungary now."
Ross Brawn: "Things looked pretty good for us in the early stages of the race, with Nico running strongly in the top six, and he seemed set for a top six finish. However, the pace was not there in the third stint, which cost him a position. As for Michael, we believe that he braked on a damp patch on the way into turn 10, which caused him to spin. After that, he drove a strong recovery to finish less than ten seconds behind Nico. We saw some good racing all through the field today, with our drivers involved in plenty of it, and scored a few more important points for our Championship position."
Norbert Haug: "At least we scored points today with seventh and eighth positions for Nico and Michael. Our race speed was somewhat compromised as both Nico and Michael needed to save fuel for quite a long period of time. At the beginning of the race, our speed looked better relative to the pace of the top three teams than it did from one-third distance onwards."
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