Mercedes hope to see Schumacher shine in last race
Nico Rosberg and Michael Schumacher qualified in 10th and 14th places today for the Brazilian Grand Prix at Interlagos. After a brief exploratory run to check out the damp track on primes by Nico in Q1, both drivers used the option tyre throughout qualifying but their compromised wet car set-ups prevented from achieving more today.
Nico Rosberg, F1 W03 / 09, 10th:
"To progress into Q3 and the top 10 in qualifying today was a reasonable achievement for us. Our car set-up was a little compromised due to the race conditions expected tomorrow so we should be in better shape then. You can't change anything after qualifying so I hope we are well prepared and that we have chance to score some good points tomorrow."
Michael Schumacher, F1 W03 / 03, 14th:
"For obvious reasons, I am not particularly happy about the qualifying session today. We might have compromised the car too much for the rain which is expected for tomorrow and was also forecast for qualifying. When the drops came down just before, it looked even more likely. Anyway, my starting position is now quite tricky, and I will have to see what we can make out of it tomorrow. Of course, coming from where I am does not make it easy, but I will definitely try to fight my way up the field."
Ross Brawn, Team Principal: "The conditions were a little challenging in qualifying after the rain shower, particularly in Q1, but the team handled the situation well. Our results were pretty much what we could have got out of the car today with the current level of performance. It's so tight in the midfield that a couple of tenths make a big difference and Michael got caught on the wrong side of that in Q2. However we know what a racer he is and, with the difficult conditions predicted, we should see his talents come to the fore. I'm optimistic that we'll be in better shape for the race with the car that we have."
Norbert Haug, VP of Mercedes HPD:
"Much more was not possible today. Probably like our competitors, we took the weather forecast for tomorrow into account setting up our cars for today's qualifying. Of course I would have wished for Michael to make it into the top 10 like Nico in his last Formula One qualifying session but hopefully this will be the case in tomorrow's race. Well done to Lewis, Jenson and Vodafone McLaren Mercedes for their front row lock out in a thrilling Q3 session today."
