Positive start to final GP weekend for Mercedes
The Yas Marina Circuit in Abu Dhabi hosts the final race this weekend as the 2010 season comes to a close. With the race held in twilight conditions with a 17:00hrs start time, today's practice sessions began in the early and late afternoon with the floodlights coming on around the circuit as darkness set in during the second session.
Nico and Michael worked on the set-up of their respective cars with both drivers making god progress over the course of the day and completing 48 laps each, with Nico finishing in 10th place and Michael in eleventh position.
Nico Rosberg: "We made some good progress today and are definitely going the right way with the set-up. It took some time and a few steps in different directions to find the improvements, and whilst there are some issues that we need to solve, overall it is looking ok. My F-duct wasn't working properly today which wasn't ideal but we will fix that overnight ready for the weekend."
Michael Schumacher: "It is quite interesting to drive in the day/night conditions here and it makes this track special and the event fun. The track itself was not too complicated to learn so all in all, it was okay today. We did not really face any special issues so I really look forward to tomorrow's qualifying when I will try to get a good lap together to make it as far up on the grid as possible."
Ross Brawn: "We have had a reasonable start to the weekend here in Abu Dhabi with both Nico and Michael finding a good set-up direction by the end of the second session this evening. We achieved some interesting evaluations today which should stand us in good stead to have a positive final race weekend of the season here."
Norbert Haug: "Our lap times in race conditions did not look too bad at the end of the session. As at the last few races, we will try to get the best possible places on the grid behind the quicker cars and then aim to improve during the race. Of course, it is our ambition to finish this long season with the best results possible and our guys are fully motivated to achieve that target."
