2012 ABU DHABI GRAND PRIX YAS MARINA CIRCUIT2 NOVEMBERPRACTICEMichael Schumacher and Nico Rosberg completed the opening practice sessionstoday for the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix. The first practice session took place in sunny conditions with the lightfading to darkness during the second session
Michael and Nico completed 55 laps each of the 5.554 km Yas Marina Circuit
The team focused on set-up and tyre evaluations, along with workspecifically targeted towards the 2013 seasonDrivers Car No. Chassis No. Practice OnePractice Two Nico Rosberg 8 F1 W03 / 07 19 laps 1:45.194P8 36 laps 1:43.200 P12 Michael Schumacher 7 F1 W03 / 03 23 laps 1:44.694P6 32 laps 1:43.267 P14
Weather Hot Temperatures Air: 29-34C Track: 29-48C
Nico RosbergThat was a good testing day, and we were able to evaluate a lot of differentthings. Unfortunately we are still lacking some pace but I hope that we canachieve some points with a good strategy tomorrow and on Sunday. Generallytyre degradation is not as big as last year, so it will be interesting tosee how the race turns out.Michael SchumacherToday we saw what I would call a 'normal' Friday - doing certain programmes,changing the set-up and typical data collection work. What we saw at the endof the day is probably where we are, so a pretty realistic picture. At themoment we are driving to finish in the points, and that is what we willtarget for the weekend. On a different note, it really is impressive andbeautiful to drive here, and to drive from daytime into the night really isspecial.Ross Brawn We completed a very useful programme today, and worked through a number ofevaluations, particularly looking ahead to next year. The balance of the carlooks reasonable after the first two sessions, although there are some areasstill in need of improvement. The midfield is very tight again, so we willwork on our performance on new tyres to ensure that we can qualify asstrongly as possible tomorrow. As always, the facilities here at the YasMarina Circuit are extremely impressive, and the amount of fans enjoying theunique atmosphere is great to see.Norbert HaugA Friday test day for us with no surprises. We ran through our plannedprogramme and at the end of the second session we performed long runs duringa race simulation with quite consistent lap times.
We had a KERS issue, which wasnt the same as last week. It never helps to miss some running on the track during practice, but its not a big deal. The track will move around a little bit from where it is now, but not a huge amount; its in pretty good shape straightaway. Well get it fixed tonight and come back tomorrow.
