Sunday: Mercedes leaves empty-handed

Nico Rosberg – 12th:

« I had a perfect start and was able to gain 3 positions, unfortunately we were unable to maintain this pace and the race did not go as we had hoped. The end was particularly disappointing with Pérez touching me, causing a puncture that put me out of the points. We have a lot of work to do to understand what didn’t work and how we can use the car’s potential. I am confident for Malaysia, which is a completely different circuit. »

Michael Schumacher – retirement (gearbox):

« It was an unfortunate end when I lost control in turn 1. I was trying different speeds and sometimes it would return to normal, but I eventually had to go into the grass to avoid spinning. It’s all the more unfortunate because we didn’t have this problem during the winter and we were very reliable. That’s why I’m not worried, these are things that happen in motor racing and our reliability is not in question. I believe I could have had a good race this afternoon and I can take away some positives from our weekend. We saw that our car confirmed our impressions and it’s definitely a step forward. We can build on this and start improving. »

Ross Brawn – Team Principal

« After an encouraging start to the weekend, this is not a good result for us. Despite a good start from Michael and Nico, we had difficulties with the tires from the beginning of the race. We didn’t find the right usage window and had degradation issues. However, I remain optimistic because we have shown, both here and during winter testing, that we are fundamentally fast. We need to look at what happened today and work to improve. »