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The third of the 2011 season’s four sets of back-to-back races continues this weekend in Budapest with Round 11 of the Formula One World Championship, the Hungarian Grand Prix, taking place at the Hungaroring.
• The Hungarian Grand Prix will be the 100th race for the Mercedes 2.4 litre V8 engine.
• The Hungarian Grand Prix has been won from pole position just once in the past five years (Hamilton in 2007).
• Ten of the Hungaroring’s14 corners are taken at 155 kph or below.
• The average lap speed of 196 kph is the lowest of any permanent circuit on the calendar.
Michael Schumacher
“We have had two home races in a row now, and Hungary too feels like it is linked with me in a way. I will obviously never forget that I won one of my world titles there, and I always enjoyed the support of a lot of fans travelling to Budapest. Ideally we can help them enjoy their weekend, and I am hopeful we can as we have seen some progress lately with our car. I am impressed with the effort the team and the guys back in England are constantly putting into it and it is good to see developments. I am looking forward to travelling there.”
Nico Rosberg
“Hungary will be my 100th Grand Prix which seems crazy when my father completed 114 races over his whole career. It’s a nice number but statistics aren’t that important to me. I’m looking forward to the weekend in Budapest as I like the Hungaroring very much, and I’m hoping for a better time than in 2010 when unfortunately I didn’t finish the race. We need to work on our race set-up to see what improvements we can make as the car that I had in qualifying in Germany was better than the one that I had in the race. I’m sure we can do it and take another small step forward.”
Ross Brawn, Team Principal
“An extremely busy few weeks for the team come to a conclusion with the Hungarian Grand Prix in Budapest next weekend, before the well-deserved break of the summer shutdown gives the opportunity to recharge the batteries. The Hungaroring is renowned for being a technically challenging track and it will be very useful for us to gain further experience of our latest developments there. It’s not a track where overtaking has been easy in the past, so it will be interesting to see how the combined effect of DRS and KERS improves the possibilities this year. Our recent performances in Silverstone and Germany have been encouraging, although the pace is still not there to compete with the front-running teams, and we will keep working hard to continue to find improvements.”
Norbert Haug, Vice-President, Mercedes-Benz Motorsport
“The Hungarian GP can be described as a medium-speed challenge, with 40 per cent of the lap spent in corners at or below 150 kph. The 70-lap race is long and demanding, and usually held in very hot conditions – which would make a pleasant change after the past two race weekends! Our aim in Budapest will be to take some positive momentum into the summer break. The Hungarian Grand Prix will also mark the 100th race for the Mercedes-Benz 2.4 litre V8 engine since its introduction at the start of 2006: in the 99 races so far, our V8 has taken a total of 32 wins.”
* Official photo and details courtesy of MERCEDES GP PETRONAS *
Copyright © 2011, Mercedes-Benz-Blog. All rights reserved.
OFFICIAL PRESS RELEASE
Barcelona, Spain, May 21, 2011
Nico Rosberg and Michael Schumacher qualified in seventh and tenth positions respectively today for the Spanish Grand Prix.
• With a focus on saving tyres for the race, the team took a measured approach to Q2 & Q3 with one run for each car
• Michael’s car suffered a KERS failure in Q3 and he did not complete a timed lap to save a set of fresh tyres
• Nico will start the race on the soft option tyres whilst Michael is able to choose which tyres he will start on
Nico Rosberg
“With our focus on the race pace this weekend, it was to be expected that we might suffer a little in Qualifying. However I am not too disappointed with seventh place as we should be stronger in the race tomorrow, and I believe we can aim to be better than in Istanbul. I have one set of new tyres left which is good for us, and I hope that we can move up with the right strategy.”
Michael Schumacher
“Unfortunately in Q3, my KERS system did not work but we reacted in the best possible way. We took the decision to go out on prime tyres to be able to react if other cars did the same. As no-one did, we came in without setting a time so we can now choose our strategy for tomorrow. I will certainly try to have another of the good starts that I have made recently, make up some positions right at the beginning, and take it from there. With DRS and KERS, overtaking is possible even in Barcelona, so it is important to use your tyres well, and I still have a set of fresh tyres left. I will definitely try to make the best out of it.”
Ross Brawn
“We had a fairly good qualifying session today whilst being mindful of preparing for the race and being in the best possible position for tomorrow. We clearly couldn’t have challenged the cars right at the front of the grid, however Nico did a very good job, and he is in great shape for tomorrow’s race. Unfortunately with Michael, we incurred a KERS problem of a nature which made it difficult to think that he could achieve a competitive time, and therefore he did not complete a lap. This has the advantage of giving us maximum choice for his tyre strategy for tomorrow.”
Norbert Haug
“Michael’s car suffered a KERS problem before his planned Q3 lap, and therefore we decided not to use another set of fresh tyres. Our strategy in qualifying concentrated from lap one on saving tyres for the race and that is what we have achieved today, albeit probably to the cost of a better place on the grid. Nico got the best possible result under these circumstances. We are sorry for Michael as he definitely would be starting further up the grid without the KERS issue. However tomorrow is the race, and our aim is to repeat what we have achieved in the last two races; to be placed in the top five at the finish line.”
* Official photos and report courtesy of MERCEDES GP PETRONAS *
Copyright © 2011, Mercedes-Benz-Blog. All rights reserved.
OFFICIAL PRESS RELEASE
Barcelona, Spain, May 20, 2011
MERCEDES GP PETRONAS drivers Nico Rosberg and Michael Schumacher finished today’s practice sessions at the Circuit de Catalunya in sixth and seventh places respectively on the timesheets.
• The team’s programme for today focused on evaluating the new developments to the MGP W02 car for this weekend.
• Tyre evaluations, particularly with the new Pirelli hard compound tyre, took priority in the afternoon session.
• Nico completed 64 laps today, with Michael covering 62 laps, as the team completed a busy and successful programme.
Nico Rosberg
“It was a good day in terms of set-up and we learned quite a few things about our car. Of course, it’s difficult to say where we really are because the hard tyres didn’t work so well today and it was very windy. However, we had a nice long run and our preparation with the car is certainly better compared to the last race. The updates are working quite well so far, and thanks for that to the boys in the factory.”
Michael Schumacher
“We have had quite a reasonable Friday and have clearly demonstrated an upwards tendency with our improvements seeming to work well. Saying that, the other teams have improved too, so without having had a chance to look deeper into the data, I would say that we may be fighting for the third row. We will continue to work further on our performance for tomorrow.”
Ross Brawn
“We have a number of new items on the car here which we wanted to evaluate today, and we have successfully achieved that. It was a pretty comprehensive programme and, as always, we will piece together all of the data tonight, and decide how we will approach the rest of the weekend. We’ve got to find some performance on the car, but today was a reasonable start.”
Norbert Haug
“A first day with a total of 126 laps for Michael and Nico gave us the opportunity to learn a lot about the new prime tyre which has not been tested before at this track. At the beginning, it looked difficult to make this tyre work for most of the teams, however we have learned a lot today which will be useful to get the set-up of our cars right tomorrow and on Sunday. Our target for the rest of the weekend is to again be in the top five as at the last two races.”
* Official photos and report courtesy of MERCEDES GP PETRONAS *
Copyright © 2011, Mercedes-Benz-Blog. All rights reserved.
