Friday: Mercedes rides the Chinese wave
After winning the Chinese Grand Prix, the Mercedes AMG team is under scrutiny in the heat of Bahrain. For now, everything seems to be going well for the German team as Nico Rosberg recorded the fastest time in the second practice session of the day. Nonetheless, tire management remains a concern for both drivers and will be key to a good performance on Sunday.
Nico Rosberg – 4th and 1st
« It’s a good start to the weekend and it’s nice to be the fastest today even if we know it doesn’t count. The most important thing is to improve our race pace. For the moment it seems reasonable but we need to analyze where we are with a full tank of gas compared to our opponents and draw our conclusions. The conditions are really difficult here, so the race will be very demanding from the tire standpoint. »
Michael Schumacher – 7th and 5th
« We started well today and our long stints are satisfactory, as are our lap times. Unfortunately, I couldn’t complete a clean fast lap due to traffic. We have to see what will happen tomorrow and Sunday because the tires wear out really quickly. Let’s see what we can do, but the start of the weekend is clearly not bad for us. »