Mercedes Nico Rosberg rues missed opportunity at Abu Dhabi GP but praises car – Formula 1 news
Nico Rosberg has said that the alack of front-end grip prevented him from being competitive against the Felipe Massa to fight for the fifth position at the recently concluded Abu Dhabi Grand Prix.
Massa was in a dominant position over Rosberg but in the final stages of the race the Brazilian’s car spun at turn one and lost some time, which allowed Rosberg a chance to make his move.
However, the Mercedes driver was not able to grip the opportunity at hand, which he explained to be the result of understeer on the medium compound tyres.
“It was an interesting race for me today,” Rosberg said. “The start didn't work out very well as I tried to overtake Felipe but suddenly there was no space left. Michael was able to overtake me, and we had a fun battle before I took the place back.”
“From then, I was able to handle my tyre situation well. I stayed out a bit longer before the second stop as there was grip left, and it was better to stay out with softer tyres. With the prime tyres, I had some under-steer which made it impossible to overtake
Felipe towards the end,” he further added.
Rosberg did mention that there were no issues with the car, and it felt really well throughout the weekend. It was only the tyres that he had some trouble with during the race. He is hoping that he does not face the same issues at the last race of the season,
due on November 27, 2011 in Brazil.
He praised the pit stop and the team staff for doing a great job with the car, and said that they played a vital role in a result that he has achieved, and hopes that they can continue with the same motivation in the next race, which he is also looking forward
to.
It would be interesting to see how well he performs in the final race, as Mercedes did look to be performing better than it has in recent races.
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