Saturday: Mercedes GP initially focused on the race
Mercedes GP primarily focused on tomorrow's race during this qualifying session. Rosberg and Schumacher have saved a set of soft tires for tomorrow and hope to achieve a good result. The seven-time world champion will have strategy options since he didn't set a time in Q3, so he could choose to start on hard tires tomorrow.
Nico Rosberg – 7th:
« Given that we focused on our race pace, we expected to suffer a bit in qualifying. However, I’m not too disappointed with seventh place because we should be stronger tomorrow, and I think we can hope to do better than in Istanbul. I’ve kept a set of new soft tires which is good for us, and I hope we will have the right strategy. »
Michael Schumacher – 10th:
Unfortunately, in Q3, my KERS system did not work, but we reacted in the best possible way. We decided to put on the hard tires to be able to react if other cars did the same. Since no one did, we didn’t record a time, so we can now choose our strategy for tomorrow. I will surely try to have a good start like I did recently and gain a few positions. With the DRS and KERS, overtaking is possible even in Barcelona, so it’s important to use the tires well, and I still have a new set, so I will try to make the most of it.
Ross Brawn:
«We had a pretty good session while preparing for the race by being in the best possible position for tomorrow. We clearly couldn’t beat the cars at the front of the grid, however, Nico did a very good job and he is in good shape for the race tomorrow. »
Unfortunately with Michael, we had a KERS problem which wouldn’t have allowed him to set a good time, and so he didn’t record a lap time, giving us the advantage of having the maximum choices for our strategy tomorrow.
