Mercedes Barcelona Qualifying Review

12 MAY - QUALIFYINGNico Rosberg and Michael Schumacher will start the Spanish Grand Prix from ninth and seventh positions respectively following today's qualifying hour at the Circuit de Catalunya.· Today's qualifying was dominated by a strategic use of tyre sets with aview to tomorrow's race· Just three teams got both their cars into the top ten shoot-out thisafternoon, including MERCEDES AMG PETRONAS· Tomorrow's grid will see four different teams starting from the top fourpositions· P2 to P6 on the grid were covered by less than two and a half tenths of asecondDrivers Car No. Chassis No. Practice Qualifying 1Qualifying 2 Qualifying 3 Nico Rosberg 8 F1 W03 / 03 P10 P41:23.370 P7 1:22.882 P7 1:23.005 Michael Schumacher 7 F1 W03 / 05 P17 P111:23.757 P10 1:22.904 P9 No Time

Weather Hot & sunny Temperatures Air: 28°C Track: 36-43°C

Nico Rosberg"That was a tricky Qualifying session this afternoon, and seventh positionwas about the most that we could have achieved. It was a challenge to findthe right set-up for the tyres and some of the others did that better thanwe did today. However with a good strategy tomorrow, we can hopefully gainsome places. This has been a mixed up season so far and it's interesting tosee that there are some new guys on the front row tomorrow."Michael Schumacher"We wanted to save tyres this afternoon, which dictated how we managed Q3. Idid not complete a timed lap, and now I still have the choice of what tyresto start on tomorrow. Equally, I thought it was better to start from ninthon the grid than eighth, and be on the clean side. It's clear that someteams have taken a step forward after the three-week break. And I would alsosay that the field is now even closer together. It's going to be a tightrace tomorrow, although the forecast says it should be cooler, and it willbe interesting to see if our choices today pay off at the end of the race."Bob Bell"We completed useful race preparation work this morning, showed someimprovement and went into qualifying expecting an interesting session due tothe desire to save tyres for the race. The story of qualifying indeed turnedout to be one of managing tyre use, and it certainly delivered a uniquesession. From a team perspective, we got two cars into the top ten and bothdrivers will start from the cleaner side of the grid, while our positionswere probably as good as we could have achieved with the way we chose to usethe tyres. Tomorrow's forecast is still for cooler temperatures, and withwhat we have seen both this weekend and this season so far, we know that adifference of several degrees in track temperature can make a hugedifference to how different cars perform. We can expect a very interestingrace."Norbert Haug"A qualifying dominated by tyre saving which most of the teams did and wewere no exception. Some sessions are tight, like Q2 when 0.048s separated P5from P10, others are not, as Lewis' impressive qualifying time more thanhalf a second ahead of P2 proved. Having said that, it is most likely thatwe will see changes in the top ten order from today at the end of the racetomorrow. Our target will be to score points with both cars postingconsistent lap times as Nico did during his long run at the end of the finalpractice session this morning."


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