Friday: Mercedes joins the favorites
Mercedes created a surprise a year ago by securing pole position and victory on the Shanghai track. At the end of the first day of testing for the 2013 Chinese Grand Prix, the F1 W04 seems capable of playing a leading role, perhaps even securing a second success. Nico Rosberg and Lewis Hamilton are in any case satisfied with this day and are waiting for the qualifications before making any predictions.
Nico Rosberg – 1st and 4th:
« It was nice to come back here to Shanghai where I’ve had some great moments in my career. I feel very comfortable in the car and it has been a productive day for us. We have learned a lot. We seem to be good on a lap but there is still work to be done on the longer stints. The degradation is very significant on the soft tires. So we need to analyze that and decide what will be best to do in the race.
Lewis Hamilton – 2nd and 7th:
« We started the weekend well here but there is still work to do tonight. The car is behaving relatively well even though I’m not completely comfortable yet, so we made some changes this afternoon which were positive. I hope we can continue to improve by spending more time in the car. The tires will be a big challenge this weekend, especially the soft ones. Our pace seems good even though I had traffic on my best lap. There is a positive feeling. We will see in qualifying where we really are. »
