RACE NEWS // 31.07.2011
On a damp afternoon at the Hungaroring, Nico finished in ninth place at the end of the Hungarian Grand Prix, scoring two points, whilst Michael was forced to retire. Both drivers had good starts with Nico gaining three places and Michael four positions. Michael’s car subsequently suffered a gearbox problem which led to his early retirement on lap 26.
“Our race began well with good starts from both drivers and generally looked quite encouraging, particularly when we made the move to prime tyres at the right time”, said Ross after the race. “We were planning on a two-stop strategy, however the shower caught us out as we expected it to get much heavier, which didn’t happen. So that was clearly the wrong move and spoilt the race for Nico who had to try and recover from there. Michael unfortunately had a gearbox problem which forced the early retirement of his car. It’s not been a particularly auspicious weekend for us but we will take a lot of lessons from here for when we have a better car to work with.”
For Norbert: “It did not pay off to put Nico on intermediates when we were expecting more rain. He would have finished in seventh place which he missed by one and a half seconds after his four stops, rather than in ninth position. Nico showed good speed in the last part of the race, and the team will build on that after the summer break. Michael's car suffered from a gearbox problem which we still have to investigate. Congratulations to Jenson Button and McLaren Mercedes for winning this dramatic race; well done and victory number 77 with Mercedes-Benz power since the start of the new era in 1997 and the 253 races since then. A well deserved summer break now for everybody and afterwards we are looking forward to the Belgian Grand Prix which will mark Michael's 20th anniversary in Formula One.”
Credit: Mercedes GP (www3.mercedes-gp.com)
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