Mercedes: Rosberg beats Ferraris despite fuel worries

2011 Chinese GP team review

April 18, 2011 at 4:40 pm by Keith Collantine

A step forward by Mercedes made them the third-fastest team in Shanghai.

	Michael Schumacher	Nico Rosberg
Qualifying position	14	4
Qualifying time comparison (Q2)	1’36.457 (+0.607)	1’35.850
Race position	8	5
Laps	56/56	56/56
Pit stops	3	3

Mercedes drivers’ lap times throughout the race:

http://www.f1fanatic.co.uk/charts/2011drivercolours.csv

	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13	14	15	16	17	18	19	20	21	22	23	24	25	26	27	28	29	30	31	32	33	34	35	36	37	38	39	40	41	42	43	44	45	46	47	48	49	50	51	52	53	54	55	56
Michael Schumacher	111.637	106.229	105.643	105.577	105.775	105.449	104.755	105.558	105.197	109.461	120.226	104.006	103.327	103.518	104.352	103.928	105.576	103.487	103.665	103.365	103.256	103.442	104.184	103.691	104.576	108.333	120.509	101.599	103.03	103.897	102.857	102.914	102.341	102.534	101.373	101.639	102.023	103.233	106.676	120.018	102.053	101.488	101.281	101.614	101.269	101.215	101.306	101.304	101.721	102.596	101.471	101.754	101.391	102.015	101.673	102.245
Nico Rosberg	108.84	105.061	104.837	104.501	104.666	104.194	104.276	104.262	104.676	105.316	105.635	108.939	119.877	103.029	103.512	103.347	103.21	103.254	103.013	102.808	102.6	102.949	102.946	102.948	107.627	120.139	101.548	102.26	101.812	101.626	101.615	101.455	101.42	101.472	101.209	101.602	101.922	102.291	106.047	118.543	101.166	103.445	101.297	101.932	103.261	102.611	101.822	101.974	101.999	103.465	101.429	102.052	101.888	104.088	102.569	105.392

Michael Schumacher

Schumacher continued to have problems with his Drag Reduction System – particularly the delay in the flow re-attaching when it moves from open to closed.

Ross Brawn intends to solve the problem with an upgrade at the Turkish Grand Prix but in China it kept Schumacher from progressing beyond Q2.

He lined up ten places behind his team mate but made an excellent start – out-dragging the two Saubers and using the outside line at turn one to gain a total of five places.

An aggressive strategy saw him make his first pit stop on lap ten. He put in a series of fast laps to briefly move up to sixth place, in front of Fernando Alonso.

This was their first of two battles during the race and Alonso got past at turn 14 after eight laps of trying.

Schumacher was passed by Webber later on and his third pit stop allowed Alonso back through again. He ended the race pressuring Alonso, less than half a second behind the Ferrari.

Michael Schumacher 2011 form guide

Nico Rosberg, Lewis Hamilton, Shanghai, 2011

Nico Rosberg

Rosberg declared himself pleased with the team’s progress after beating both Ferraris in qualifying to take fourth on the grid – his best starting position since the same race last year.

He nearly took third off Sebastian Vettel at the start but was firmly rebuffed. Like his team mate he pitted early, which promoted him to the lead for 14 laps.

Third after his last pit stop, he struggled to defend his position as the team warned him to conserve fuel. Ross Brawn admitted afterwards this cost Rosberg a podium finish:

“We need to look into why we suffered so much higher fuel consumption in the race than we had experienced in practice, even allowing for the changes in conditions and grip. There was clearly a problem and it’s very frustrating for Nico and the team.”

First Lewis Hamilton passed him, then Rosberg ran wide at turn 14 allowing Felipe Massa and Jenson Button through.

Rosberg recovered his place with a smart pass on Massa at turn 16. But Mark Webber soon charged past to demote him back to fifth.

Nico Rosberg 2011 form guide

2011 Chinese Grand Prix

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41 comments on Mercedes: Rosberg beats Ferraris despite fuel worries

Byron R said on 19th April 2011, 3:29

Merecedes are supposed to be bringing a new rear wing to Turkey that will resolve their DRS issues.

Glad to see some good strategy calls from Merc this time, but I think it was a little enhanced by McLaren’s strategy used to hamper Vettel.

Loved the aggressive driving from Schumi, keep it up.

bosyber (@bosyber) said on 19th April 2011, 8:23

Well, finally they got most things working together, apart from fuel, and showed what the car can do. I wonder if MSC’s fights with Alonso is part of why they were so far behind those ahead, as it took quite a few laps. Regardless, they even managed to have their tyres not go off a cliff sooner than others it seems. With that DRS fixing in Turkey, will be interesting to see what they can do (if it keeps all working, that is).

MSC does still seem to need to work harder in qualifying – even if he again had issues, he keeps being in a position where the slightest issue means he doesn’t do well. Since he seems to encounter a lot of problems, it’s high time he starts expecting them and working with them as best he can, instead of having them take him by surprise time and again.

abscrazyfast said on 20th April 2011, 21:21

So, none of you super armchair F1 experts that are beating up on Schumacher for being slow through the race noted that he was in battles for position pretty much throughout the race, unlike Nico who was leading for a good number of laps, and running in clean air?

And maybe a few of you would also know that fighing for position definitely slows you down? Or maybe not.

Don’t let facts get in the way of your retarded hating though. Geez.

Mercy said on 22nd April 2011, 23:30

We musn’t forget who Alonso recently said he fears most with a good car. It wasn’t Vettel, Hamilton, Button, Webber, nor Rosberg, but MSC. That should tell you something.