Saturday: Rosberg Sixth, Schumacher Strategist
After an excellent run in Q2, Nico Rosberg appeared to be a spoiler but couldn't repeat that performance, ultimately taking a good sixth position on the grid. For Michael Schumacher, qualifying was an opportunity to prepare for the race, which he hopes will be rainy.
Nico Rosberg – 7th and 6th
« It was a good qualifying session today. We saved a set of soft tires for the race and qualified ahead of one of the Ferraris, which has always been my goal for the season. So, I’m quite happy to start from sixth place tomorrow. I might have been a little too slow on my out lap in Q3, so my tires didn’t work properly on my flying lap, which is why I wasn’t as fast as in Q2. I will push for a good result tomorrow for the team that has worked hard all season. »
Michael Schumacher – 8th and 10th
« The forecasts say there is a high probability of rain during the race. With that in mind, we have kept all our options open for tomorrow, and we took a strategic approach to qualifying today. We still need to understand why we were not able to replicate our times from this morning. There will be a lot of data to sift through tonight, so tomorrow will be another day and we will be able to push to score more points. »
Norbert Haug, Vice President of Mercedes Motorsport
Nico seemed strong in Q2 when he posted the second fastest time, which was one and a half seconds faster than his Q3 lap. The second row was within reach for him today. Nonetheless, we are in a good position for tomorrow’s race where rain is expected. We still need to investigate what happened to Michael, as we were not happy with his car and tires after being good during the three practice sessions. For the last race of the season, Nico and Michael will aim for a good result, similar to what we have achieved in recent races.
