Schumacher 13th, Rosberg taken out by Kobayashi
At Mercedes AMG, Michael Schumacher finished the Korean Grand Prix in 13th place today. Nico Rosberg on the other hand saw his race come to an end early as he had to retire on lap 2 after being hit by another car.
· Michael completed a two-stop strategy of used option/new prime/new prime, stopping on laps 13 and 32
· Nico's car was hit from behind by Kamui Kobayashi on lap one, under braking for turn three
· Nico was forced to retire the car because of the resulting damage on the second lap of the race
Michael Schumacher, F1 W03 / 09, 13th, 1:43.184:
"There are some races where nothing comes together and which you simply have to move on from straight away. This was one of them. We didn't manage to get the tyres working properly over the race distance, which made for inconsistent lap times, and accounted for our step back in performance. So we will write this one off, look forward and hope that we will be able to get back on the front foot again in the upcoming races."
Nico Rosberg, F1 W03 / 07, DNF:
"Unfortunately this has been the second poor weekend in a row for me, and it's very frustrating to be taken out twice in the first corners of the race. Kobayashi hit me from behind today and that was my race over. The one small positive to be taken from the weekend is our qualifying performance which was a small step forward. Now I'll look forward to India and hope for a bit more luck there."
Ross Brawn, Team Principal: "It was a difficult race for us today. Nico was hit by Kobayashi on the first lap for the second race in succession, and to lose him again through the error of another driver was extremely disappointing. Michael did all that he could today but we struggled to keep the tyres up to temperature. There were parts of the race where the tyres were working properly and we were more competitive, but too many periods where we struggled. We need to look at how we can improve that situation, and we will keep working hard to make progress at the final four races."
Norbert Haug, VP of Mercedes High-Performance:
"Nico was once again the victim of a crash on lap one when a competitor drove into his car. This damaged the radiator which put an end to his race and, as in Japan, it was through no fault of his own. At no stage did Michael's car produce the grip we had anticipated. We need to quickly put this race behind us but not before a thorough analysis, with an understanding of why we got it wrong today."
