Mercedes Benz

OFFICIAL PRESS RELEASE

Suzuka, Japan, Oct 10, 2010

In qualifying at the Suzuka Circuit today, delayed overnight following torrential rain, MERCEDES GP PETRONAS drivers Nico Rosberg and Michael Schumacher qualified in seventh and 10th places for this afternoon’s Japanese Grand Prix.


Drivers - Car No. - Chassis No. - Qualifying 1 - Qualifying 2 - Qualifying 3
Nico Rosberg - 4 - MGP W01 / 04 - P3, 1:32.238 - P7, 1:31.886 - P7, 1:31.494
Michael Schumacher - 3 - MGP W01 / 05 - P6, 1:32.513 - P10, 1:32.073 - P10, 1:31.846

Weather - Warm & sunny
Temperatures - Air: 25-26°C / Track: 27-32°C

NICO ROSBERG
“I’m ok with seventh place and it was a good lap. The car felt well-balanced today after our issues on Friday so we need to look into that. It was very tight in qualifying but the car just couldn’t go any quicker so we can be satisfied with what we achieved. We can have a good race from here and try to make up places.”

MICHAEL SCHUMACHER
“10th place was probably about the maximum from my side in qualifying. I am not totally happy but I am also realistic about our performance. I will concentrate on the start and hope to make up positions as overtaking is quite difficult here. Moving forward through our start and strategy is where we may gain places so let’s see how it goes.”

ROSS BRAWN
“A good performance from Nico and Michael during today’s delayed qualifying session at Suzuka. We achieved probably the maximum potential of the car so the focus will now be on our race strategy to see how we can make up positions and continue our good run of points-scoring finishes.”

NORBERT HAUG
“Another solid effort from our team and drivers with the technical package we currently have. Nico posted a very good Q3 lap which was just over seven-tenths down on Sebastian Vettel’s pole time. Three of the five drivers fighting for the World Championship are positioned within three-tenths of Nico and Michael is another three and a half tenths down which is again a good qualifying result at this track.”