Formula1™ Malaysian Grand Prix
March 30, 2012
Michael Schumacher and Nico Rosberg finished yesterday’s rain-soaked Malaysian Grand Prix in 10th and 13th places respectively.
Despite a strong start, Michael’s car was touched on the first lap leading to a spin which dropped him to 16th at the end of lap one. Struggling with adverse weather conditions and poor visibility, the race was halted on lap nine and restarted 51 minutes later.
After the race Schumacher admitted: “It’s clear from today that there is still a lot of work for us to do to take our pace from qualifying into the race, and I am sure the guys are already thinking very hard about finding a solution.”
Rosberg managed to gain fourth position after the restart, but was forced to make an additional pit stop due to high levels of degradation on the intermediate tyres. Commenting on an “eventful race” he concluded: “We are strong in qualifying but not yet in the race, and we need to work on that before the next race in China.”
Team Principal Ross Brawn raised concerns over tyre degradation saying: “We struggled to get the tyres to work properly in the race today. I don’t believe that we are abusing the tyres, just not using them properly, and it’s a problem that we have to solve if we are going to move forward with the car.”
Looking ahead to the next race, Norbert Haug, Vice President Mercedes-Benz Motorsport, said: “We obviously did not have the set-up to make the best out of these tricky conditions today. Our car has got speed and we will continue to work hard to generate this speed in the race as well as in qualifying.”
Despite not hitting the heights of performance expected, the speed of their car is undeniable and both Schumacher and Rosberg will be expecting to improve their finishing position next time round in the Chinese Grand Prix, taking place on the 14-15 April.
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