Mercedes GP’s Nico Rosberg marks the best lap on the time-sheets in Barcelona – Formula 1 Update
The Mercedes GP drivers, Michael Schumacher and Nico Rosberg can take a sigh of relief, as the latest upgrades in the new team car, W02, seem to working well. Rosberg ramped through the wet Barcelona track on the last day of the test session to finish at
the sharp end of the time-sheet.
The caravan of cars is ready to head to Australia for the 2011 Formula 1 season opening race, at the end of this month. The last of the four pre-season test sessions ended this Saturday at the Circuit de Catalunya, Barcelona. The fifth and the last day of
the test embraced the drivers with a wet track and rainy conditions.
However, the young German drove masterly during the little time that the rain allowed and ended at the top of the tally covering 35 laps while the quickest was marked in just 1:43.814s.
On the other hand, his teammate and the seven-time world champion, Schumacher was only able to cover five laps without a recorded time.
However, while talking to the media, the 42-year-old stated, "It was good to complete a few laps out there this morning and try out the Pirelli wet tyres. There was obviously a limit to what we could achieve, but we made good use of the time by working through
our race procedures. It's been a good week here in Barcelona and we're certainly happy with our position going into the first race of the season."
As Schumacher has always been famous for performing brilliantly well on rainy days, many are concerned that he was not able to improve on his time. His team-mate, Rosberg was happy with the way the last day of practice unfolded for him, as he believes that
the car has shown a lot of progress over the course of the four days of practice, which makes him very optimistic for the upcoming championship battle.
He told the media, "It was tricky out there today; there wasn't a lot of grip, but it was really useful to get the experience on the Pirelli wet tyres.”
Red Bull, Ferrari and McLaren have demonstrated great pace and reliability in the pre-season testing, Mercedes is also a team to watch for the upcoming season.
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