The 2010 Formula One World Championship continues next weekend with the fourth round, the Chinese Grand Prix, taking place at the Shanghai International Circuit on Sunday 18 April.

Shanghai International Circuit StatsCircuit Length: 5.451 km Race Distance: 305.066 km Number of Laps: 56

Full Throttle: 55% Brake Wear: Medium Tyre Compounds: Soft / Hard Downforce Level: Medium 7/10 Tyre Usage: Medium Average Speed: 203kph (126mph)

NICO ROSBERG "Shanghai is a good track which is an enjoyable challenge for thedrivers. The two long straights provide some decent overtakingopportunities and there's a great mix of corners, particularly thehigh-speed sections. The weather will be colder in Shanghai than at theprevious three races and can be quite unpredictable so it should be aninteresting weekend. The fans in China are so enthusiastic and Shanghaiitself is a great city so I always enjoy our annual visit. Achieving myfirst podium with the team in Malaysia at the last race was fantasticand I'm looking forward to continuing our consistent run of good resultsin China next weekend."

MICHAEL SCHUMACHER"The enthusiasm for Mercedes-Benz and the support of the fans is verybig in China so we have an attractive race ahead of us in Shanghai nextweekend. I am confident that the fans will not leave the racedisappointed. We looked quite reasonable in Malaysia at the last raceand maybe things will play into our hands again in Shanghai. I amlooking forward to the race and fully enjoying the competition again.Admittedly the last two races have not been very fortunate for me but Iam very much aware of the reasons for it. I know how things go in F1 andif you look into the detail of the two races, I think everything isstill going according to plan. You can only improve step-by-step and Iam confident that we are achieving this."

ROSS BRAWN"Achieving our first podium of the season with Nico was very rewardingin Malaysia at the home race of our title partner PETRONAS and a timelyboost for the team. Michael also had a strong weekend and is gettingmore up to speed with every race although circumstances beyond hiscontrol limited his race performance in Melbourne and Sepang. We hope tocontinue these signs of improvement in China and it would beparticularly good for Michael to be able to have a clean race and showthe progress that he has made since the start of the season. On anoperational level, the team has performed very well over the three racesand did a good job during Nico's race in Malaysia to record one of thequickest pit stops of the season. Our car has been reliable, with theexception of the wheel nut problem in Malaysia, and I am very pleasedwith the performance of our drivers. We've achieved a reasonable set ofresults which are in line with the car's current pace but we have to berealistic and acknowledge that we are not quick enough to compete rightat the front at the moment. This is obviously not a situation that weare happy with and we are working as hard as possible to close the gap."

NORBERT HAUG"The Chinese Grand Prix has taken place since 2004 and is one of themost recognised events on the Formula One calendar. China is a veryimportant market for Mercedes-Benz as, for example, we sell more S-classcars there than in any other country of the world. The circuit locatedoutside of Shanghai features lots of challenges for the car, drivers andteam. There are fast curves as well as tight corners and two hairpins,one close to the start and finish of the lap. For Shanghai, thelong-term weather forecast doesn't predict a probability of rain as wasthe case for the last race in Malaysia. But one way or the other, wewill try to achieve a good result and in addition to improve ourtechnical package step by step for the next races."