Sunday: Schumacher and Mercedes Celebrate
Last on the starting grid, Michael Schumacher celebrated his twenty-year career in the most remarkable way, by climbing nineteen places and treating himself to the luxury of overtaking Nico Rosberg, who had managed the feat of leading a few laps of this Grand Prix after making an excellent start.
Michael Schumacher – 5th
« A wonderful end to a wonderful weekend here at Spa. Better than fifth place wasn’t possible today, but climbing 19 places is a great feeling. With all my family, friends, and fans present here, I was very motivated, and I want to thank them for their support. They saw an exciting race with a great strategy from our team. So, all in all, there were a lot of emotions and a lot of overtaking today. At the beginning, I was a bit scared that all the debris would damage my car, but I was lucky that nothing happened. After that, I had a fun chase and made my way forward ».
Nico Rosberg – 6th
« I got off to an excellent start today and it was a special feeling to lead a race in a Silver Arrow on this incredible circuit. It was also great to see the traffic behind me with the Red Bull, McLaren, and Ferrari, but it was difficult to realize that we just didn’t have the pace to stay at the front. Despite everything, we’ve made progress this weekend, and today is a good result for the team. I had to push really hard at the start and mid-race, which cost me a bit towards the end. That, combined with the fact that Michael was on soft tires, explains why I couldn’t keep him behind me. Now, I’m looking towards Monza, and I’m confident that we can improve even further ».
Norbert Haug, Mercedes
A great race from Michael for his 20th anniversary here at Spa. Starting last and finishing 5th is excellent and well-deserved. Michael drove impeccably and the team had a good strategy: starting on the medium tires, which are slower, to get rid of them quickly. He was in a position to use the soft tires in his last stint while Nico was on mediums, which was decisive in the result. Nico had a very good start and led for two laps but, obviously, the speed of our current package is not good enough to stay in front. A satisfying result for the team after the summer break, well done guys.
