Japanese F1 Grand Prix 2012: Friday's Free Practice Report (VMM)

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LEWIS HAMILTON
- MP4-27A-04
- FP1: 1m34.740s (+0.233s), 26 laps, 2nd
- FP2: 1m32.707s (+0.214s), 32 laps, 2nd

“I have the coolest job! Suzuka is such a phenomenal circuit!

“The first lap out of the pits felt great. Just driving through the first couple of corners and feeling the acceleration, it takes a few laps to get warmed up, but you keep getting faster and faster as you push the limits.

“But you need to be careful. At Spoon we saw a few people making mistakes today. If you put a wheel on the dirt, it’s very easy to lose the car.

“As always, we’ll be fine-tuning the car tonight ahead of tomorrow’s sessions, but it looks very close between ourselves and Red Bull. I feel comfortable with our car – it’s the best that it’s ever been around here – and I think I could have matched Mark’s [Webber] fastest time with an optimal lap.

“It’s going to be very close in qualifying tomorrow.”

JENSON BUTTON
- MP4-27A-03
- FP1: 1m34.507s, 20 laps, 1st
- FP2: 1m33.349s (+0.856s), 22 laps, 7th

“I love Japan. This is a crazy race for me – the fans are fantastic, they’re true supporters of all the drivers, and they get so excited about the sport. Also, there’s such a flow about this circuit. It’s important to find the right gear ratios though, because you’re up and down the gearbox all the time.

“I didn’t do too many laps in FP2: the balance wasn’t quite right and we knew we couldn’t go back on the changes we’d made until after the session, so there wasn’t any point doing too much running.

“Still, we know how to dial the car in for FP3 tomorrow, and that’s the important thing. The car felt good this morning, so we’ll go back to something similar with just a few detail changes.

“Overall, the car is working well here. Qualifying will be very competitive, but I think we’ll be up there.”

MARTIN WHITMARSH
Team principal, Vodafone McLaren Mercedes

“It’s always a thrill to arrive at Suzuka – it’s a mighty motorsport amphitheatre, and a place which showcases Formula 1 at its finest, whether it’s through the graceful, high-speed sector-one Esses, the pincer-sharp Degner apices or the great sweeping arc of Spoon.

“We spent the morning evaluating and experimenting with a handful of useful new components that we wanted to compare. For FP2, we were conducting set-up experiments across the garage and we’ll assimilate that data tonight in order to determine the cars’ optimum configuration for qualifying and the race. We got some extremely useful data, and that will all filter into the work we do ahead of FP3 tomorrow.

“Both Jenson and Lewis were happy with their cars today. Of course, Jenson’s five-place grid penalty is unfortunate, but, while it puts us on the back-foot, I’m still convinced that he, along with Lewis, will be able to fight for victory on Sunday.”

~ Official photos and report courtesy of Vodafone McLaren Mercedes ~

Copyright © 2012, mercedesgla. All rights reserved.

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Japanese F1 Grand Prix 2012: Race Report - Michael Schumacher 11th, Nico Rosberg retired

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Michael Schumacher finished the Japanese Grand Prix in 11th place this afternoon, having started from 23rd on the grid. Team-mate Nico Rosberg was forced to retire on the first lap after being hit by another car.

• Michael ran a two-stop prime/option/option strategy, stopping on laps 17 and 36
• His strategy made full use of his two available new sets of option tyres to gain 12 positions
• In the final stint, he caught the cars ahead of him at over a second a lap but was unable to pass for P10
• Nico was eliminated by a collision in turn two when he was hit from behind by Bruno Senna´s Williams

Michael Schumacher
“I have mixed feelings after the race here in Japan, because it´s obviously unfortunate to come so close to scoring points and not manage it, after a race which went better than we expected. In the final laps, I had a nice and interesting battle with Ricciardo, but in the end I couldn´t get past him because the Toro Rosso was so quick on the straights. That´s why we have to say we couldn´t have got much more out of it today. Now let´s see how things go in Korea.”

Nico Rosberg
“I had a good start to the race but unfortunately it ended fairly quickly today. In the first corner Grosjean spun into Webber and that also led to my accident. I began to brake but Senna crashed into me from behind which destroyed my rear tyre and meant that I had to retire. It’s a shame as I felt very comfortable with my car on the installation lap, and I was confident that we could score some decent points. I’ll now hope for a better weekend in Korea.”

Ross Brawn
“From where he started today, Michael drove a strong race, and it’s a shame that he didn’t get some points for his efforts. However starting from 23rd on the grid made that just too much of a challenge, despite a very good strategy and encouraging pace from the car in the lower temperatures. The accident which caused Nico’s retirement was a great shame as the car was in good shape and he could have scored decent points if he hadn’t been taken out. There were some encouraging signs in the race and we will take heart from that as we continue to work on improving the car.”

Norbert Haug
“A good performance and a good drive from Michael during the race, which saw us posting good lap times for the first time this weekend - and Michael setting the sixth fastest lap time around three-quarters of the way through the race. After starting P23 following his ten-place grid penalty, Michael came home in P11, chasing the car ahead during the last seven laps. He caught him quickly, setting better lap times in the final stint, but in the end he unfortunately could not overtake to score the last available point. Nico was eliminated during the first corner crash through no fault of his own, so no points today for him or our team. We are now looking forward to the race next weekend in Korea.”

~ Official photos and report courtesy of MERCEDES AMG PETRONAS ~

Copyright © 2012, mercedesgla. All rights reserved.

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Japanese F1 Grand Prix 2012: Qualifying Report - Michael Schumacher 13th, Nico Rosberg 15th

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Michael Schumacher and Nico Rosberg qualified in 13th and 15th positions today for the Japanese Grand Prix in Suzuka.

• Knowing that he would take a ten-place grid penalty, Michael took an aggressive approach to qualifying
• He made a single Q1 run on the prime tyre, and a single Q2 run on the option, to finish the session in P13
• Michael will have four fresh sets of tyres (two prime, two option) available for tomorrow´s race
• Nico finished P15 but will start further up the grid, with a free tyre choice, once penalties have been applied

Michael Schumacher
“It was a shame that we couldn´t do more today, after things hadn´t looked too bad this morning, but we simply didn´t get the performance together. Although we should also say that, knowing the high-speed characteristics of this circuit, we didn´t necessarily expect to look in great shape here. Perhaps I could have made it through to Q3, because the data showed that I lost two-tenths in turn 11 because of traffic, but I wasn´t quite sure what Hamilton was doing ahead of me. I saved a lot of tyre sets and in that respect got the maximum out of the situation. Now we need to wait and see what happens tomorrow. I will be certainly aiming for the best possible result, starting from the back of the grid.”

Nico Rosberg
“It’s been a difficult weekend for us. Qualifying in 15th place is not where we want to be although I will gain some places due to grid penalties. The times were so close today and it’s disappointing that we couldn’t make it through to Q3. Our pace felt better on high fuel, so hopefully this will work out well in the race and I can gain positions.”

Ross Brawn
“Today has been fairly challenging for us and it goes without saying that we’re not happy to see both cars knocked out in Q2. We’ve done a lot of work in the last few races exploring the performance variables of the car and whilst that has increased our understanding, it’s still not enough to be competitive. The balance of the car isn’t too bad though, and we seem to have stronger race pace, so we will try to race well and see what we can achieve.”

Norbert Haug
“We struggled to get further than the second part of qualifying, when the fastest time was a little less than a second quicker than Michael´s best. He was missing two-tenths of a second to proceed to Q3 and Nico four-tenths. As a consequence, we will not be in the grid positions where we would have liked to start the race from.”

~ Official photos and report courtesy of MERCEDES AMG PETRONAS ~

Copyright © 2012, mercedesgla. All rights reserved.

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