Mercedes confident for season finale
Mercedes GP drivers Nico Rosberg and Michael Schumacher qualified in sixth and 10th places respectively at Interlagos today ahead of Sunday's Brazilian Grand Prix. While Nico focused on performance, Michael could not match his pace shown in the morning and therefore chose to drive a tactical final qualifying session.
· Both drivers will start the race with a new set of option tyres available, having saved one set during qualifying
· Nico will start from P6 for the third time this season, and has qualified in the top ten 18 times in 19 races
· For the 15th time in 19 races, four or more Mercedes-Benz powered cars will start the race from the top ten
Nico Rosberg, MGP W02 / 07, P6:
"That was a good qualifying session today. We saved a set of option tyres for the race, and we qualified ahead of one of the Ferraris which has always been my goal during the season. So I'm quite pleased to be starting from sixth place tomorrow. I was maybe a little too slow on my out lap in Q3 so my tyres didn't work perfectly on my fast lap, and that's why I wasn't as quick as in Q2. I will push to gain a good result tomorrow for the team who have done a great job over the whole season."
Michael Schumacher, MGP W02 / 09, P10:
"The forecast says there is a high probability for rain during the race. With this in mind, we have kept all of our options open for tomorrow and we had a strategic approach to qualifying today. Still we need to find out why we weren't able to match our times from this morning. There will be a lot of data checking now, so that tomorrow it will be very different and we can attack for some points."
Ross Brawn, Team Principal:
"We had a reasonable final qualifying session of the season today. There was a threat of rain throughout, which meant we ran slightly earlier than we ultimately needed to in some of the sessions to be on the safe side. Nico's run in Q2 was very impressive, and that performance potential augurs well for the race. Michael took a measured approach to Q3, in order to save a new set of tyres, and he is in a good position strategically. We know how good he has been on the first lap this year, so we're looking forward to finding out what will be possible in the race. Rain is still forecast for tomorrow but the same was true of today, so we are working with a measure of uncertainty. I'll know it's raining when the top of my head gets wet..."
Norbert Haug, Vice President Mercedes High Performance Engines:
"Nico looked strong in Q2 when he set the second fastest time, which was about half a second quicker than his Q3 time later on. The second row of the grid, instead of the third, could have been possible today for him. Nevertheless, we should be in good shape for the race tomorrow when rain is predicted, which could mix up the field a bit. We still need to investigate what happened to Michael, as he was not happy with his car and tyre combination after looking strong during all three practice sessions. In tomorrow's final race of the season, both Nico and Michael will be aiming for a respectable result, similar to what we achieved in recent races."
