Mercedes driver Nico Rosberg terms Chinese Grand Prix as a missed opportunity – Formula 1 news
Mercedes GP driver Nico Rosberg has stated that getting so close to a podium finish and not winning it in the Chinese Grand Prix is a missed opportunity.
Talking about the car, MGP-W02, Nico commented that some new upgrades were done for the Chinese race which paid off.
Nico Qualified the Chinese Grand prix in 5th place while showing some pace in the Mercedes car. As the race started, Nico was almost neck-to-neck with Red Bull’s Sebastian Vettel on the first corner of the first lap but lost the initiative. The
German was soon in the race lead and kept the distance from second placed driver for 20-odd laps.
Talking about the race, Nico commented, “Leading the race for such a long time was a great feeling.”
The German was disappointed when his engineers told him that his car’s fuel level is critical and might not last the whole race distance. After that point onwards, Nico gave up the podium fight and drove slowly towards the chequered flag in fifth position
without trying hard on corners.
Talking about the race overall, the German stated, “Naturally I'm disappointed with the race today as we know that we didn't make the most of our opportunity out there.”
For the first time, Mercedes’ team were showing some progress in the 2011 season. Nico’s teammate Michael Schumacher was also showing some competitiveness as he was able to fight with the Ferrari’s duo in the middle part of the race.
The seven-time world champion Schumacher expressed his feelings about the race and said, “That was a lot of racing in one grand prix this afternoon and very exciting! I had a lot of fun this afternoon and I'm so pleased to see the hard work of our guys paid
off this weekend.”
Schumacher started the race in 14th position and ended in an eventful 8th position. He was still off pace to Red Bull of Mark Webber, when the Australian overtook the German without using the Kinetic Energy Recovery System booster.
The German gave some tough fight to the higher ranked drivers and made the Chinese Grand Prix the most interesting race of the three races so far in the 2011 season.
The Formula 1 world will take a break of three weeks until the Turkish Grand Prix will be contested in Istanbul on May 8, 2011. The teams will get some time to regroup and think out their strategies in the upcoming races because strategies are working out
more than the pace of the cars in the 2011 season so far.
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