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Friday, July 22, 2011

German F1 Grand Prix 2011 - Nürburgring: Free Practice Report (VMM)

LEWIS HAMILTON
- MP4-26A-03
- P1 programme: 18 laps, 1m32.996s (+1.102s), 5th
- P2 programme: 28 laps, 1m32.724s (+1.013s), 7th

“It’s been a productive day. We got through our run-plans well, and my long-run pace is better than it was at Silverstone, which is a good thing.

“We’ve got some updates on the car and they seem to be working, which is also positive. But it’s only Friday, so it’s too soon to draw conclusions - and, besides, and we don’t know what programmes the other teams were running.

“The Ferraris look like they’re up there, and the Red Bulls seem quick too, but anything can happen in the race and we’ll be working hard tonight and tomorrow to maximise our chances.”

JENSON BUTTON
- MP4-26A-04
- P1 programme: 22 laps, 1m33.628s (+1.734s), 6th
- P2 programme: 17 laps, 1m33.225s (+1.514s), 11th

“It’s been a slightly frustrating day for me. I couldn’t get a good balance on the car this morning - and, once we’d found some rear grip in the afternoon session, my KERS Hybrid system was no longer working. That cost me quite a bit of lap-time under braking and on corner exits.

“Then, with 20 minutes of the afternoon session remaining, a problem with an experimental exhaust brought my day to a premature end. It was a test part and failures sometimes happen when you’re trying new things on a Friday.

“Looking to tomorrow, I think it will be difficult for us to beat the Red Bulls in qualifying. But our aim is to race with the front-runners on Sunday afternoon.”

MARTIN WHITMARSH
Team principal, Vodafone McLaren Mercedes

“Jenson had a KERS Hybrid problem today, and consequently had to do a bit of running without the lap-time benefits that KERS Hybrid confers.

“The experimental exhausts that he was testing also failed, which cut short his track time - but that’s an inevitable result of our having to use Fridays for testing.

“Lewis had a more trouble-free day and completed a competitive long run, which was encouraging.

“But today was basically a data-gathering exercise, and we’ll now analyse that data overnight in preparation for qualifying tomorrow.”

* Official photos and report courtesy of VODAFONE MCLAREN MERCEDES *

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German F1 Grand Prix 2011 - Nürburgring: Free Practice Report (MGP)

The German Grand Prix weekend got underway today for the MERCEDES GP PETRONAS team, with the first two practice sessions taking place at the historic Nürburgring circuit in the Eifel Mountains.

• Michael and Nico both completed two busy and trouble-free practice sessions in dry but cool conditions
• Michael completed 62 laps and Nico 65 laps - a total of nearly 650 km, equivalent to more than two race distances
• The dry running was particularly valuable for further developing the new aerodynamic package introduced in Silverstone

Michael Schumacher
“I’m quite happy with the work that we achieved today and we are going in a good direction. We are continually developing our car and days like today help that process. It’s difficult to see the real picture for the weekend however; we don’t know what fuel loads the other cars were running and we need to have a close look at our data. It was a really nice feeling to drive the corner which bears my name here in a Formula One car; I certainly wouldn’t have imagined that at the time that we inaugurated the corner.”

Nico Rosberg
“It’s amazing to see how many spectators came to the Nürburgring today for the practice sessions. I love the atmosphere at the German Grand Prix and I tried to wave to the fans but there’s not much space for it in the car! In general, I am happy with our work and progress today so far. It seems that the new parts are working quite well in the dry and I think there is a small step forward. However on Fridays, you never know exactly where you are and what the other teams are doing.”

Ross Brawn
“We’ve had a solid day to start our German Grand Prix weekend here at the Nürburgring. It was a particularly useful day to further evaluate our new exhaust system following its introduction at Silverstone and the limited dry running that we were able to achieve there. It was a good effort from everyone in the two sessions today but it would be nice to find a little more lap time before qualifying tomorrow.”

Norbert Haug
“A productive first day at our home Grand Prix: surprisingly it stayed dry, but the forecast still predicts rain for race day. We worked through our planned programme and evaluated all three different types of Pirelli tyre available to us today. Our race simulation at the end of P2 showed consistent lap times, which were of course still not quick enough compared to the top three teams. Our positions in the rankings today reflect more or less our current place in the pecking order.”